Exclusive:Tate retrospective to celebrate eight decades of work by 'amazing' Scots artist
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s work is to be exhibited at the Tate
She was one of the most innovative and prolific British artists of the 20th century and enjoyed a lengthy career spanning eight decades.
Now the life’s work of St Andrews-born Wilhelmina Barns-Graham is to be celebrated in a major retrospective at the Tate gallery next year.
Ms Barns-Graham, who lived between homes at the beach in St Ives in Cornwall and in the countryside near St Andrews, worked across landscape and abstraction in painting, drawing and printmaking.
Rob Airey, director of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust, said the retrospective demonstrated that Ms Barns-Graham was “moving out of the shadow” of other contemporary artists of her time, such as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.
The exhibition, the first to chart the full length of Ms Barns-Graham’s career, will run from October 24, 2026 to April 11, 2027 at the Tate in St Ives, Cornwall.
Born in the Fife town in June 1912, Ms Barns-Graham moved to Cornwall after studying at Edinburgh College of Art. She became a prominent member of the St Ives school, alongside Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo.
As one of Britain's most prolific painters, her work included a progression from figurative to abstract painting and printmaking.
Rob Airey, director of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust, said: "Wilhelmina Barns-Graham is increasingly being recognised as an important contributor to post-war British art, moving out of the shadow of her contemporaries in St Ives such as Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Terry Frost, with her own wide-ranging achievements across a long career being appreciated by ever wider audiences.”
Last year two books were written about Ms Barns-Graham, one called Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: The Glaciers and an illustrated children's book detailing her life.
Meanwhile, an award-winning documentary, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, by former Edinburgh International Film Festival director Mark Cousins, was also released.
Mr Airey said: “It seems clear that as people learn about her life and work they want to find out about, and most importantly want to see, more of her amazing output.
“This will be the first ever retrospective exhibition in the UK to look at Barns-Graham’s entire career, with a significant proportion of the works coming from the Trust’s own collection. The only previous show on this scale was in 1989. However, at that point she still had over a decade of her career to go, so didn’t include her important late work, and two previous exhibitions at Tate St Ives were also much smaller in scale.
“The exhibition has been developing over the last 12 months or so through conversations with the Tate’s curator of the exhibition, Katy Norris, who was very enthusiastic that Barns-Graham should be shown in depth at Tate St Ives."
Last year, 20 years after her death, a commemorative plaque to remember Ms Barns-Graham, who was awarded the CRE in 2001 for services to art, was unveiled in St Andrews.
A statement from the Tate said: “One of the most innovative British artists of the 20th century, Barns-Graham communicated her physical, emotional and spiritual responses to the world around her through her work. This was particularly true of her deep connection with the landscapes of Cornwall, Scotland and continental Europe. She carved out a vibrant style of abstract painting known for its energetic rhythms and bold colour.”
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