British abstract painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912-2004) played a key role in the development of modern abstract art in Britain. This new edition of Lynne Green’s classic monograph completes the story of the artist’s life and work drawing on the artist’s personal diaries and notebooks. Twenty five years after it was first published, this reprint features improved colour illustrations and a new preface by the author. Published by Lund Humphries, it coincides with two important public exhibitions: her first solo exhibition outside the UK at Museum Belvedere, Heerenveen and a major retrospective at Tate St Ives.
The Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust exists to enhance the reputation and understanding of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham as one of Britain’s most significant 20th century artists, and through her legacy support young people and other individuals to fulfil their potential in the visual arts.
Lynne Green is an art historian whose specialist fields are British modernism and contemporary art. She was the co-founder and former editor of Contemporary Art (later Contemporary) magazine and was formerly an exhibition organiser at the Hayward Gallery before becoming curator of Southampton City Art Gallery.
Former Tate curator Dr. Virginia Button reevaluates the life and work of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in the first monograph of the artist in 20 years.
‘Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’ is fully illustrated and offers both the non-specialist and specialist reader an accessible, affordable and concise introduction to the artist’s life and work. Alongside a biographical overview, the author explores key aspects of Barns-Graham’s work.
Modern Masters Women
A catalogue to accompany Modern Masters Women, August 2020
We are taking this moment to reflect on one key area of our history and review one hundred and twenty-five years of exhibiting women artists. This continues the spirit of our Modern Masters series and allows us to celebrate the pioneering, persistent, creative women artists at the end of the 19th century, and all the curators, gallerists and individual talents who have contributed to the equality enjoyed today in the cultural realm.
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham | A Journey Through Four Decades
A catalogue to accompany the exhibition A Journey Through Four Decades, November 2019
The Scottish Gallery is happy to be defined by its lifelong association with the work and life of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912–2004). A dedicated artist; an innovator in times of change (and chaos); a woman artist finally triumphant in a predominantly masculine world; an artist happy to be a Scotswoman but whose work transcends boundaries, real or imagined. In seeking the significant in a long professional life she discovered the emotional, what Mark Rothko pinned down as his only interest in making art, “to express basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.”
The astonishing late flowering of Willie as a colourist springs from this emotionalism, but was delivered, as always, with the acuity and judgement she had garnered over a lifetime.
We are delighted to offer this latest selection of her work from four decades and give thanks to Kate Downie, Dr. Isobel MacDonald and Geoffrey Bertram for their contributions to this catalogue.
