Page 34 - Art First: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: Collage Works 1982-1993

WILHELMINA BARNS- GRAHAM

A S H O RT B I O G R A P H Y

Barns-Graham was born in 1912, St. Andrews, Scotland and attended

Edinburgh College of Art from 1932 to 1937. From 1940 to 1960 she lived
and worked in Cornwall. On inheriting a family home in St Andrews,
in 1960, she divided her time between the two coastal communities.

She was part of the artist community known as the St Ives Group (with

Nicholson, Hepworth, Wallis, Leach, and Gabo) and was a founding
member of the Penwith Society of Artists.

From 1948 to 1952, following visits to Switzerland–specif cally the

Grindelwald Glacier–her Glacier Series was exhibited to great acclaim,
and entered public collections including the British Council and Tate.
T rough the 1950s and 60s she travelled to Italy, Sicily and the Balearics

on many occasions, and she exhibited in London with Redfern and
in several group and solo shows.

In 1985 her work was included in the def ning exhibition at Tate: St Ives

1939–64. Tate St Ives presented both a major survey exhibition in 1999,
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: An Enduring Image, and a memorial show
with a catalogue and illuminating essay by Mel Gooding in 2005.