Sunday 13 September 2020

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham at RWA

A few weeks ago, the Royal West of England Academy posted on Instagram about their new exhibition on Scottish Modernist artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and the work she made on several trips and journeys, connecting it to the work by the modernist St Ives artists in the 20th century. 

Finding Barns-Graham's work extremely interesting, I followed the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust on Instagram and by chance I ended up being their 3000th follower. To celebrate, they most generously sent me some books and postcards in the post.

 
Delightfully, they then posted the following:
 
 
I was finally able to go see the exhibit at RWA, which I loved. Not only was it wonderful to be in an art gallery again after the shutting of public (art) spaces during the pandemic, but I also found WBG's work to be really beautiful. 
 
Painting and drawing landscapes from her travels to Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Lanzarote and Orkey, and sometimes using the earth such as volcanic sand in her paintings, I began to think anew about site-specific work, a topic which has always interested me, taking me back to times when I was consumed by Fogo Island. 
 
Thinking about site/place/location is of further interest for me at the moment as I have begun to research place-based giving in work at Teach First and thinking about people's connection to place/home/the local, especially as Covid-19 has forced us to contend with our immediate surroundings and very little else further afield. There are more connections here worth exploring for me. 

Selection of WBG works:





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