Abstract, Issue 30

Sidney Nolan Trust | Colour and Line in Print – Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
5th July – 27th September 2025

From 5th July to 27th September 2025 an exhibition, Colour and Line in Print, of Barns-Graham’s remarkable career long output of printmaking will be shown at the Sidney Nolan Trust’s base in Herefordhsire at The Rodd, near Presteigne on the Wales/England border. The exhibition includes examples from her entire creative output as a printmaker, from her early 1950s experiments in etching to the bold and colourful screenprints she made with Graal Press during her final years.
It’s great to be to be working with the Sidney Nolan Trust, a fellow UK single-artist focused organisation, on the exhibition and it’s a wonderful opportunity to see the beautiful grounds and historic house which Nolan occupied during his later career.

Hampstead Art Society Annual Exhibition
6th – 12th July 2025

The Hampstead Art Society is run by practicing artists and aims to promote and reward excellence though the organisation of annual exhibition opportunities. This year’s summer exhibition will take place at Gallery 8 at 8 Duke Street, St James’s, London, SW1Y 6BN between July 6th – 12th. The Trust is delighted to have been asked to lend three Barns-Graham works to the exhibition as ‘special invited guests’, including two pieces from her trips to Lanzarote between 1989-94.  The exhibition is only on for a week so take your chance while you can!
There will be an associated special ‘in conversation’ event on Thursday July 10th, 6.30pm – 8pm with the Trust Director, Rob Airey – booking essential.

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things | Screening and streaming updates

Mark Cousins’ superb Barns-Graham inspired film A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things continues to be seen by audiences around the world. In May the film was screened in a number of cities in Poland as part of a wider retrospective of Mark’s films at the international Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival. In June the film was screened four times at the prestigious Shanghai International Film Festival and also appeared at FFE 2025 the European Film Festival in Bucharest. In August Kosovo’s annual DokuFest in the city of Prizren will also host the film.
Following the film’s screening in Germany at DOK.fest München the Trust was delighted that the film’s brilliant Editor, Timo Langer, received the Festival’s editing prize the DOK.edit Award – presented by Adobe 2025 – the film’s second award!

In the UK the film is available for download at home via:

• BFIplayer,
• Amazon Prime and
• Now TV

…and in Ireland via IFI@home and Spain as La Pintora y el glaciar via Filmin.

The film is still available for screenings in all kinds of cinemas, which is of course the best place to see it, for bookings contact Conic.

WBGT Annual Lecture 2025 at The British Academy
Professor Dorothy Price | A Sense of Place: Lubaina Himid and the Sea

We had a brilliant time at this year’s WBG Trust Annual Lecture, held at The British Academy in London.  We would like to extend our thanks to Professor Dorothy Price for presenting a fascinating dive into artist Lubaina Himid’s relationship with the sea, in particular the influence of Porthmeor Beach in St Ives, that was also so significant for Barns-Graham.  Our thanks also to Professor Martin Kemp for introducing Professor Price and all the staff at the British Academy in helping arrange the event.

The Annual Lecture coincided with a new display of works by Barns-Graham throughout the newly refurbished lower ground event spaces at the British Academy. Please see details below for access to the display:

The newly refurbished lower ground event spaces are used for both Academy events and hired as corporate event spaces so may not always be publicly accessible. Please check with reception staff.  The works are available online through the Bloomberg app and all artworks are always available at our Summer Showcase in June (next year’s date to be confirmed) and at Open House which will be on Sunday September 21 when there will be a designated art tour available to pre-book with the Heritage Collections Manager, Dr Sharon Messenger

Summer Gifts from our Online Shop

There are lots of wonderful things to discover in the Trust’s Online Shop and every purchase supports our charitable work. Included is our latest publication with Lund Humphries, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: The Glaciers, in both standard softback edition and the beautiful limited edition hardback edition, which comes with slipcase and photographic print (a few signed copies still available!).  We also have our magical book for children, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: An Introduction to Her Life with Activities, recently longlisted for the prestigious Klaus Flugge Prize for the most exciting newcomers to picture books, recognising Annabel Wright’s wonderful illustrations.
As well as these recent publications we have Lynne Green’s definitive study A Studio Life, Virginia Button’s great introduction Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Alyson Hallet’s collection of poems End of the Glacier, exhibition catalogues from across Barns-Graham’s career (many at bargain prices) and a fantastic range of postcards and greetings cards.

Shop now

Archive insights

Volunteer Alannah Renton has recently finished cataloguing Barns-Graham’s large collection of solo artist exhibition catalogues.

Read more about Alannah’s findings in her recent blogpost.  

A recent rehang of artworks on display at the Trust premises prompted some archival research into one particular painting, Zennor, 2003. The canvas looked as though it had been overpainted, and lo and behold, we discovered the following passage in Barns-Graham’s diary for 9th June 2003:

“I was exhausted painting, decided to work on the painting that had been terra cotta & yellow. I’d worked on last winter & had blotted out this winter all yellow. Well worked on that using first a sort of wine broad stroke then some blue, purple orange and white & also a stone colour canvas…”

Where to see Willie

There are lots of opportunities to see Barns-Graham on public view across the UK over the summer, in exhibitions and in museums and galleries’ permanent collection displays.  At the McManus in Dundee Barns-Graham features in their new exhibition Border Crossings: Ten Scottish Masters of Modern Art, at Leeds Art Gallery, their excellent An Axis of Abstraction: Art in Cornwall and Yorkshire – Then and Now, collection display has been extended to 7th Dec 2025 and at Edinburgh’s City Art Centre, Out of Chaos: Post-War Scottish Art 1945-2000 also features Barns-Graham.

Permanent collections displays at:

• Perth Art Gallery,
• Pallant House Gallery, Chichester,
• the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art,
• Tate Britain,
• Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries,
• Tate St Ives,
• Penwith Gallery, St Ives,
• Aberdeen Art Gallery and
• Pier Arts Centre, Stromness

all have works on display (check with venues before you visit to make sure!!) .