Fabulous & Fantastic: Barns-Graham in the USA

It is difficult to say when, what order ideas developed, seeing the lights going on & off of the sky-scrapers in Chicago in 1965 rows of square windows bearing a resemblance to the earlier Square Motiv paintings (1963-4) what came after the experience.

Barns-Graham’s Statement on Work 1968

An American Journey

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham embarked on her American journey between 5 and 26 of October 1965 under the guidance of the Contemporary Art Society, and especially Pauline Volgelpoel, a charismatic figure of the British Art scene, who would later become the Society’s president. The three-week itinerary carried the group across the United States, from New York to Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C., visiting museums, private collections and artists’ studios along the way. The party was composed largely of women, all enthusiasts of contemporary art: collectors, patrons, curators and, of course, members of the Society. Barns-Graham was therefore surrounded by a stimulating circle of influential figures, an ideal environment for an artist seeking both to promote her work and to immerse herself in the artistic developments reshaping the international scene.

A succession of visual memories

The journey also coincided with a significant turning point in her personal life and the trip offered more than a cultural itinerary: it became an opportunity to encounter, first-hand, the American painting that was transforming the language of abstraction. The places the group visited each left a distinct impression, creating a succession of visual memories, that, like pieces of mosaic, would later find their way into Barns-Graham’s work and lifestyle. Although difficult to measure precisely, the impact of the journey can be traced in the increasing prominence and clarity of square motifs in her paintings, possibly inspired by the repetitive geometry of American skyscraper windows, as well as in a renewed sensitivity to colour and contrast, nurtured though encounters with works of artists such as Paul Klee, Jackson Pollock and Piero Dorazio in museums and private collections.

A rigorous geometric vocabulary

From 1962 onwards, her painting moved steadily away from the gestural, landscape-inflected abstraction of the previous decade towards a more rigorous geometric vocabulary. This development culminated in The Order and Disorder of Things series formally articulated in her 1988 artist’s statement. The same artistic shift was met with growing institutional recognition: at the end of 1964, Tate acquired Glacier Crystal, Grindelwald, 1950 through the Contemporary Art Society, an important milestone that not only validated her evolving practice, but also likely brought her into closer contact with Pauline Vogelpoel, then secretary of the Society and organiser of its American tour.

Although Glacier Crystal, Grindelwald, 1950 still retained traces of the strong figurative sensibility Barns-Graham developed in St Ives, her subsequent works revealed a more radical embrace of abstraction. At the Penwith Society’s Summer Exhibition in 1965, paintings such as Blue Circles on Blue and Dance of the Thermals (1964) already demonstrated the geometric language she would carry with her across the Atlantic. It was at this pivotal moment – newly independent, newly established in London and in the midst of a decisive artistic transition, that Barns-Graham embarked on her journey to the United States, an experience that would further reinforce visual vocabulary she had begun to develop.

Among the artists who made the strongest impression was Piet Mondrian. Barns-Graham sketched his Red Plus Blue (1938-42) in her notebook, with particular attention to its precise geometry at a time when squares and grids were becoming central to her own work. Paul Klee, whose paintings she admired throughout her career, also left a lasting mark, particularly during her visit to the Phillips Collection.

Her notebooks also reveal an interest in Sue Fuller’s String Compositions at MoMA. Beyond the works themselves, Barns-Graham paid close attention to their aluminum frames, sketching them alongside the artworks: a detail that echoes the way she would later frame and structure her own compositions.

Elsewhere on the journey, she encountered artistic ideas that reinforced the direction her work was already taking. Piero Dorazio’s colour rhythms in Cleveland, Frank Lobbdells “falling squares” in San Francisco, and the illuminated grids of New York and Chicago’s skyscrapers all found echoes in her paintings. These encounters did not transform her practice overnight, but the strengthened an artistic language that was already emerging, built on geometry, colour, rhythm and the delicate balance between order and abstraction.

In her 1968 Statement on Work, Barns-Graham articulated the philosophy behind what she called The Order and Disorder of Things. Drawing on nature, perception and the balance between structure and chance, she explained how geometry and colour could express tension between order and disorder. One of her most vivid memories came directly from Chicago, where she recalled “seeing lights going on and off of the skyscrapers”, rows of illuminated square windows that echoed the motifs already present in her paintings and helped confirm the direction her work was taking.

Colour became equally important. Her notes explore complementary colours, vibration, contrast and the emotional power of composition, reflecting ideas that can be traced back to works she encountered during her American journey. Newspaper of the late 1960s would describe these paintings as “experiments” in geometry and colour, recognising the increasingly systematic approach that defined her practice.

Like every aspect of her life, Wilhelmina’s creative process was meticulously organised. She filled notebooks with thoughts on colour, relationships, lines, textures and paint mixtures, carefully recording references to nature, literature and the artists she admired: from Cézanne, Klee and Ben Nicholson, to Vermeer, Turner and Piero della Francesca. Her notes repeatedly return to a central question: “where to draw the line between outward observation and inward perception?”. It is perhaps this balance, between what she experienced and what she transformed, that best defines the lasting legacy of her American journey.

Written to family and herself back in the U.K., these postcards are filled with enthusiasm. Again and again, Barns-Graham underlined the words “fabulous” and “fantastic” to describe the collections she visited, calling some simply “beyond description”. She also noted the excitement surrounding the tour itself, mentioning photographers, press coverage, cocktail parties and, with amusement, that “everyone seems to know about us”.

The journey also marked the beginning of a lasting friendship with Pauline Vogelpoel, the Contemporary Art Society’s Organizing Secretary and later its director. Their correspondence continued for more than three decades, reflecting a relationship that began with the Society’s support for the artist’s work, including the acquisition of Glacier by the Tate in 1964.

Through these letters and postcards, Barns-Graham emerges not only as an artist, but as a remarkable observer: someone whose curiosity extended far beyond canvas, and whose ability to notice, record and remember shaped both her travels and her art.

These personal observations resulted in something quite unusual for Barns-Graham: she compiled her notes and presented them in the form of lecture at the Playgoers Theatre Club, illustrated with personal anecdotes, pamphlets and slides bought or taken during her trip. This could be read as a sign of how deeply the trip affected her: a new breath of artistic inspiration and a new confidence in public speaking. We can, in fact, confirm that Barns-Graham had this lecture in mind well before the trip ended, since she mentioned it to one of the collectors she met in Cleveland, near the very beginning of her journey.

More than a cultural tour

More than a cultural tour, Barns-Graham’s 1965 journey across America was a sketchbook in motion. Every museum, private collection, city skyline and postcard became part of her creative process, carefully observed, recorded and later transformed into paint.

Like her visit to the Grindelwald Glacier in 1949, a defining moment that reshaped her understanding of landscape, the American tour marked another turning point. It did not change the direction of her work overnight, but it confirmed and strengthened the geometric language she had already begun to develop, leaving lasting traces in her colors, forms and ways of seeing.

Today, the archive allows us to follow that transformation almost step by step. Typed itineraries sit alongside handwritten sketches, postcards, letters and newspaper clippings, revealing not simply the story of a journey, but the portrait of an artist thinking, looking and creating.

With thanks to Aglaïa Rozental for writing this section on Barns-Graham’s journey to America. Aglaïa researched and catalogued material across the collection and archive relating to Barns-Graham’s trip to the USA and subsequent artistic output as part of a student placement project from the University of St Andrews Museum and Heritage Studies Masters degree.