Wilhelmina Barns-Graham - Exhibition at Glasgow Print Studio
- 2 years ago
John Mackechnie MBE RSA - Director - Glasgow Print Studio speaks about the exhibition by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham : Painting & Printing, 1990-2004
Glasgow Print Studio
Exhibition runs: 05 August - 01 October 2022
Glasgow Print Studio is delighted to present an exhibition of paintings and
prints by the late Wilhelmina Barns-Graham.
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912 - 2004) was first and foremost a painter, but she made prints
throughout her working life, trying many different methods such as etching, linocut, lithography and
screenprinting. All her published prints were made in collaboration with master printmakers. Their
technical expertise was essential, enabling her to translate her way of working into a different medium.
Barns-Graham was born in St Andrews in 1912, and studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1931 to
1937. She settled in St Ives in Cornwall in 1940, where she found a well-established artistic
community, which was also beginning to attract a new generation of artists, such as Ben Nicholson
and Barbara Hepworth. For the next sixty years she lived and worked in St Ives. However, in 1960
she inherited Balmungo, a house on the edge of St Andrews, and after that she spent a part of every
year in Scotland, affirming herself as a Scottish artist as much as a Cornish one.
During the last 10 or so years of her long artistic career, printmaking became a central part of
Barns-Graham’s practice, particularly after 1998 when she began working with Graal Press, Roslin,
near Edinburgh. Earlier prints such as a group of screenprints made with Kip Gresham at Curwen
Studio in 1991 and three etchings she made with Rachel Kantaris in St Ives in 1996 were often based
on existing original works. She was encouraged by the successful way in which her images could be
translated into print form, and intrigued by the possibilities for making original works in this medium.
Later, working with Graal Press’s Carol Robertson on a series of over 60 screenprints, these were
mostly entirely original - envisaged and made purely as prints – though a conversation with ongoing
painting series was often maintained.
Glasgow Print Studio
Exhibition runs: 05 August - 01 October 2022
Glasgow Print Studio is delighted to present an exhibition of paintings and
prints by the late Wilhelmina Barns-Graham.
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912 - 2004) was first and foremost a painter, but she made prints
throughout her working life, trying many different methods such as etching, linocut, lithography and
screenprinting. All her published prints were made in collaboration with master printmakers. Their
technical expertise was essential, enabling her to translate her way of working into a different medium.
Barns-Graham was born in St Andrews in 1912, and studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1931 to
1937. She settled in St Ives in Cornwall in 1940, where she found a well-established artistic
community, which was also beginning to attract a new generation of artists, such as Ben Nicholson
and Barbara Hepworth. For the next sixty years she lived and worked in St Ives. However, in 1960
she inherited Balmungo, a house on the edge of St Andrews, and after that she spent a part of every
year in Scotland, affirming herself as a Scottish artist as much as a Cornish one.
During the last 10 or so years of her long artistic career, printmaking became a central part of
Barns-Graham’s practice, particularly after 1998 when she began working with Graal Press, Roslin,
near Edinburgh. Earlier prints such as a group of screenprints made with Kip Gresham at Curwen
Studio in 1991 and three etchings she made with Rachel Kantaris in St Ives in 1996 were often based
on existing original works. She was encouraged by the successful way in which her images could be
translated into print form, and intrigued by the possibilities for making original works in this medium.
Later, working with Graal Press’s Carol Robertson on a series of over 60 screenprints, these were
mostly entirely original - envisaged and made purely as prints – though a conversation with ongoing
painting series was often maintained.