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WILHELMINA BARNS-GRAHAM (BRITISH, 1912-2004)
Pink
signed, titled and dated 'W. Barns-Graham'/ "Pink" 1954' (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
55.5 x 40cm
ARR
Provenance
The Barns-Graham Trust (inventory no. 344);
Sale, Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, 2nd June 2011, lot 219;
Rowntree Clark;
Private collection, UK
| Estimate: | £7,000 - £10,000 |
Footnote
With its dominant fields of colour linked by a pair of lines, the present picture relates to a body of work, executed in the mid-1950s known as the 'Geoff and Scruffy' series, the inspiration apparently being Geoffrey Tribe and his enormous mongrel stray dog, Scruffy. Barns-Graham denied this, stating '...my subject was nothing to do with Geoff and Scruffy, the main shape came from drawings done in the war, of men painting buoys, some were green, red, black or white. The shape got simplified. The half-moon was the beach shape cut by the sea.'
Barns-Graham specialist Lynne Green goes on to explain,'...working with this formal theme during the 1950s...the reduction of both the elements and the palette creates a strong, cogent structure, the weight and presence of which equals the simple solidity of sculpture by Robert Adams (Lynne Green, W Barns-Graham - A Studio Life, Lund Humphries, 2001, pp.143-145)
Condition report
Original canvas, which is sound; paint surface is in good, clean condition throughout; ultraviolet reveals a few scattered media spots.