Page 29 - Art First: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: 2014

In perspective: the late paintings

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s career and reputation was boosted by an outpouring
of paintings and prints made in her final decade. The Scorpio Series notably intro duced
a new dynamic to her art that was to lead to further experimentation and in her own
words, ‘letting rip’. In a conversation with John McEwen, art critic for The Daily Telegraph,
in 2001, her response on being asked to pro vide an artistic credo was the following:
‘Now I am at the stage of urgency. My theme is celebra tion of life, joy,
the importance of colour, form, space and texture. Brushstrokes that
can be happy, risky, thin, fat, fluid and textured. Having a positive mind
and con stantly being aware and hopefully being allowed to live longer
to increase this celebration’.

The collection of paintings presented here fully supports her statement, and traces some
of the earlier roots that led to this ‘celebration’ of the last ten years of her productive life.

The importance of the Scorpio Series cannot be under estimated. Anecdotally they are
a direct result of punishing a sheet of paper with a flailing brush after a failed interview
with a journalist, when suddenly Barns-Graham recognized the poten tial of the raw
mat e rial within those furious slashes. Under disciplined guidance the initial experiments
became more coherent as she brought proper structure to the forms. The energy explodes

through the apparent spontaneity and the mobil ity of the strokes, coupled with a life-
time’s experience and knowledge of colour. There are visible risks taken in her juxtaposi -
tions, for her palette utilized the entire colour spectrum. Only an artist with remarkable
skill can carry off some of the unlikely combin ations she created. Indeed not all of them
did succeed and she destroyed the failures at once. Working on paper and using the best
acrylic paints available (Lascaux), allowed her to express her individuality at full tilt, with -
out tens ing up or being precious about what she was making.

There is a real sense of improvisation in the late works, where a carefree effortless ness
prevails. Barns-Graham was wont to work simultaneously on several sheets of paper,
allowing each to evolve in its own way. The challenge for her was to recog nize the
moment when the work was finished, when the image received the final mark that
made it ‘sing’. Working in this manner encour aged groups of paintings to become series.