S HARED HISTORY The art of Wilhelmina Barns Graham George Dannatt John Wells

Transcription

1 S HARED HISTORY The art of Wilhelmina Barns Graham George Dannatt John Wells

2 SHARED HISTORY The art of Wilhelmina Barns Graham, George Dannatt & John Wells All works may be viewed online at history and are available for purchase on receipt of this catalogue 2nd 26th October 2018 WATERHOUSE & DODD 47 Albemarle Street London W1S 4JW +44 (0) Cover image (detail): JOHN WELLS ( ) Composition No.8, 1963 Oil on board x 23.5 in / 50 x 60 cm

3 SHARED HISTORY: Wilhelmina Barns Graham, John Wells and George Dannatt Art history is peppered with accounts of migratory artists gathering in remote enclaves, either pushed out of major metropolitan centres by circumstance, or coalescing around a small core of existing artists who act as mentors to a younger generation. During 1940, as war engulfed mainland Europe and the Luftwaffe began their aerial assault on London, this is precisely what happened in a small fishing village in West Penwith, Cornwall. Ben Nicholson, who had previously visited St Ives in 1928 and discovered Alfred Wallis, was amongst the first to arrive with his wife, Barbara Hepworth and their fellow Belsize Park refugee, Naum Gabo. They joined a small colony of existing artists but represented a new wave of modernism that was to act as a powerful lure to a nascent generation of largely abstract artists. Wilhelmina Barns Graham was among the first to join them in St Ives in March At first there were sporadic visitors to the town rather than settlers, but at the cessation of hostilities, a growing number of like minded artists came to Cornwall and stayed, including John Wells in April Wells, who first met Barns Graham in April 1941, was a frequent visitor to Nicholson and Hepworth in St Ives prior to settling in Newlyn. Thereafter the ranks quickly swelled and by the 1950s those aforementioned artists and Peter Lanyon the only native Cornish artist were joined by well known figures such as Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, and, a little later still, Roger Hilton. Our exhibition focuses on three particular artists, Wilhelmina Barns Graham, John Wells and George Dannatt. These artists are comparatively neglected figures in the history of art in St Ives and we will seek to explore both their place in that history and why their achievements are not more widely recognised. Dannatt s role in the narrative is both as artist and patron to the artists in question. Wells and Barns Graham were key figures in the early years. Both were very close to the Nicholson Hepworth Gabo axis, indeed Barns Graham regularly worked alongside Nicholson in drawing trips and Wells served for a time as a studio assistant to Hepworth. Both greatly admired Gabo, as Dannatt recalled: John Wells gladly acknowledged that debt to Naum Gabo, and he was well aware that Nicholson s work had much affected his own. Lynne Green notes that The dialogue between interior and exterior, explicit in Naum Gabo s work, was a central theme for the St Ives group. Hepworth explored it in three dimensions, Lanyon, Wells and Barns Graham in two. As the influence of the American Abstract Expressionist artists took hold, many of the middle generation of St Ives artists developed more gestural styles. Lanyon, once heir apparent to Nicholson, found that the dynamic mark making of the American pioneers gave him a more appropriate pictorial language to convey his experience of the environment. Similarly Patrick Heron, whose role in the history of St Ives art is one of an artist and in house critic, increased the scale of his paintings as well the colour saturation. The British interpretation of abstract expressionism became the prevailing aesthetic in St Ives after Nicholson and Gabo had left the town (in 1955 and 1948 respectively). However Wells and Barns Graham, almost in isolation, furrowed a different path. Their works are invariably on a smaller scale, more obviously linked the European constructivism and they convey a very different sense of the natural environment an experience of the structure rather than the atmosphere of the landscape. Despite both being founder members of the Crypt Group in 1947 and of the Penwith Society of Artists in 1949, and doing more than most to shape those institutions initial exhibitions, both artists were increasingly overshadowed. Wells never settled in St Ives, instead maintaining a studio in Newlyn. From the 1960s Barns Graham divided her time between St Ives and her family estate at Balmungo, near St Andrews. Although both artist s remained good friends and closely linked to the Penwith Society, they were largely marginalised critically and commercially. Neither weathered the revolution witnessed in the visual arts during the 1960s particularly well. Barns Graham suffered from a lack of support from a major London gallery, and John Wells was promptly jettisoned by Waddington s after a commercially unsuccessful show of his geometric paintings in The rise of the Pop generation and enduring influence of the Abstract Expressionists made both artists appear parochial and reactionary, yet in a sense the opposite was true. The application of geometry in their painting (more so with Wells than Barns Graham) was progressive and had strong echoes of the constructivist movement in mainland Europe. Although concrete art has a long tradition in Europe, it is widely misunderstood in the UK. Crypt Group, 1947: WBG standing & JW seated to her right

4 This period coincided with George Dannatt s appearance, both as an artist and collector. Like Wells, Dannatt was a second career artist. As Wells practiced medicine he was stationed on the Isles of Scilly during the Second World War Dannatt forged a career as a chartered surveyor. Dannatt s relationship with Wells begun in 1963 after Terry Frost suggested they meet. Dannatt and Wells became increasingly close, and often exhibited together, particularly at the Penwith Society. Wells was occasionally irritated by Dannatt s patronage, wishing that he would not acquire the best paintings before an exhibition because it prevented new collectors acquiring his work, but these minor quibbles were offset by a generally warm relationship. Music was a shared passion. Dannatt noted how Wells had an extensive knowledge of both orchestral and chamber music. Dannatt had been a respected music critic for the News Chronicle and the end of that engagement coincided with his rebirth as a practicing visual artist. John Wells once remarked that the analogy between great music (which is always abstract) and abstract painting seems to me of fundamental importance and not stressed nearly enough and this sentiment would have been echoed by Dannatt. If Dannatt s own art displays a kinship to that of Nicholson in particular, albeit a version filtered through his experience of the art of Barns Graham and Wells, his collection was more wide ranging. It encompassed work by all the major artists and a few lesser known yet interesting figures such as Alixe Jean Shearer Armstrong (shown right). Some artists, such as Alexander Mackenzie and Dennis Mitchell, were represented in his collection in considerable depth. As well as acquiring a significant number of works by Wells (many of these pieces were shown alongside his own work at Southampton Art Gallery in 2007), Dannatt had a keen eye for Barns Graham s work. He acquired her 1948 drawing Glacier and her 1955 drawing St Ives before further acquiring a third drawing, Chisure from He appreciated Barns Graham s more intimate scale. Brandon Taylor notes that for Dannatt scale in art would be a matter of the greatest importance the smallest scale that is, and one that might be described as domestic in the sense of showing a demonstrable compatibility between modern form and the ordinary routines of walking, looking and sensing the natural world. By the end of the 1970s, critics and curators began to reassess the legacy of the St Ives artists. Although many of the figures were still well known and well liked, a number such as Roger Hilton, Barbara Hepworth, Bryan Wynter and Peter Lanyon had passed away (the first three all died in 1975) giving the sense of it being the end of an era. The Tate Gallery mounted a small exhibition of 14 artists that included Barns Graham, which acted as a precursor to a survey curated by the Tate s own David Brown at the New Art Centre titled Cornwall Brown provided what was to become the orthodox history of the colony and whilst it was an important and necessary exhibition, it set in stone many of the interpretive inaccuracies concerning Barns Graham and Wells, principally that they were peripheral figures whose work lent too heavily on that of Nicholson and Gabo. The exhibition also marked the beginning of the rather nostalgic and romanticised account of the history of the group which did little to promote their achievements. This was particularly evident in a review by Edward Lucie Smith of the exhibition, although he went on to comment that it was particularly good to be reminded of the consistent merit of. Barns Graham and John Wells. The Tate Gallery were encouraged to mount a much more significant exhibition in 1985 titled St Ives: , twenty five years of painting sculpture and pottery. This exhibition, again curated by David Brown in consultation with Alan Bowness, included a significant essay by David Lewis (to whom Barns Graham was once married). Although both Barns Graham and Wells were included, they both suffered greatly from being under represented in terms of the number of works displayed and having their significant roles within the community down played. It has taken a very long time and a great deal of work on the part of associated trusts and estates, supportive writers, dealers and curators to address this imbalance. Wilhelmina Barns Graham and John Wells were pioneers of British abstraction who found themselves unjustly cut adrift critically and commercially during the 1960s. Despite the long held accepted opinion, they did not work in the manner of Nicholson, Hepworth and Gabo, they worked alongside them. The scale of the work they produced was not indicative of a lack of ambition but instead the perfect form to articulate their vision. They didn t need bombastic brushstrokes and vivid colours to convey their understanding of the natural world. This was unfashionable for some time, but thanks in no small part to the patronage of George and Ann Dannatt, a re evaluation has occurred. His own work has become a valuable testament to their enduring legacy. GD & JW in 1975 SHEARER ARMSTRONG Cornish Quarry, 1971 Oil on board 50 x 50 cm (collection of George & Ann Dannatt Trust) Jamie Anderson (July 2018)

5 JOHN WELLS ( ) Painting, 1959 Oil on board 10 x 12 in / 25.5 x 30.5 cm Provenance: Waddington Gallery, London (sold 1960) George & Ann Dannatt Trust Exhibited: City of Bradford Art Gallery

6 Right: JOHN WELLS ( ) Painting (Paris), 1959 Oil on board Signed, titled & dated on reverse 34.5 x 14.5 in / 86.5 x 37 cm Provenance: George & Ann Dannatt Trust Exhibited: 'John Wells & George Dannatt: A small selection of Paintings and Constructions', Southampton City Art Gallery, 20th April 17th June 2007 (cat 8, illus.) Below: WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Untitled, c.1963 Mixed media on paper 10 x 13.5 in / 25.5 x 35 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust Above: GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Papier déchiré No 1 Blue deep red, 1981 Paint & papier déchiré on card 7.5 x 5 in / 19 x 13 cm

7 JOHN WELLS ( ) Untitled, Oil on collage on board Signed & dated on verso 5 x 5.25 in / 12.5 x 13 cm WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Black Form with Lilac and Lime No.5, 1962 Mixed media on paper 12.5 x 14 in / 32 x 40 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust

8 JOHN WELLS ( ) Untitled, 1962 Oil on panel Signed & dated on backboard with artist's address 6.5 x 22 in / 17 x 56 cm Provenance: Marjorie Parr Gallery; George & Ann Dannatt Trust Exhibited: 'John Wells & George Dannatt: A small selection of Paintings and Constructions', Southampton City Art Gallery, 20th April 17th June 2007 (cat 9, illus.) GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Burnt overlay collage, No 2, 1992 Oil on board & charred paper 7.5 x 5.25 in / 19 x 13.5 cm

9 WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Windblown (Green), Oil on hardboard 14 x 14 in / 35.5 x 35.5 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Brown and Orange, 1972 Oil and acrylic on hardboard 20 x 20 in / 51 x 51 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust

10 WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Voyage February, 1978 Gouache on paper 22.5 x 30 in / 57 x 76.5 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust

11 GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Portland Arid Noon, 1994 Gouache on card Signed, titled & dated July '94 on verso 7.25 x 8.5 in / 18 x 22 cm WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Relief, 1967 Mixed media on hardboard 10 x 13.5 in / 25 x 34.5 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust

12 WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Untitled, 1969 Gouache on paper 23 x 23.5 in / 58.5 x 59 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust

13 JOHN WELLS ( ) Composition No. 9, 1963 Oil on board Signed, titled & dated on reverse x in / 27.5 x 60 cm Provenance: Marjorie Parr Gallery; George & Ann Dannatt Trust Exhibited: 'John Wells & George Dannatt: A small selection of Paintings and Constructions', Southampton City Art Gallery, 20th April 17th June 2007 (cat 11, illus.) GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Small Invention, 2005 Oil on board 6 x 3.25 in / 15.5 x 8.5 cm

14 GEORGE DANNATT ( ) White Hill to Fleet, 2006 Oil & pencil on board 42 x 15 in / 107 x 38 cm GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Grand St Malo: Citadel Version 6, 2004 Oil on medite board 34 x 56.5 in / 86.5 x 144 cm

15 WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Pink, Blue and Black on Orange, 1969 Gouache on paper 19.5 x 20 in / 50 x 50.5 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust JOHN WELLS ( ) Composition No.8, 1963 Oil on board Signed, titled & dated on reverse x 23.5 in / 50 x 60 cm Provenance: Penwith Society (invoice illustrated above); George & Ann Dannatt Trust

16 GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Ikon of silence version 2, 2002 Oil on canvas Signed, titled & dated with medium given on verso x 21 in / 68 x 53 cm

17 GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Sprung Circle Relief, 1989 Card, pencil & collage on card 12.5 x 7.5 in / 32 x 19 cm JOHN WELLS ( ) Untitled, 1973/1975 Oil on board Signed & dated on reverse x 8 in / 38.5 x 20.5 cm Provenance: Penwith Society; George & Ann Dannatt Trust

18 GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Red Arrow, 1982 Oil on wood panel 6.25 x 4.25 in / 15.5 x 10.5 cm WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Square and triangle on pink and lemon, 1987 Oil and acrylic on hardboard 7 x 10 in / 18 x 25.5 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust

19 GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Painting, September 1988 (Étude) Gouache on cardboard 11.5 x 5 in / 29.5 x 13 cm GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Exploration, 1992 Card collage & oil on hardboard 23.5 x 23.5 in / 59.5 x 59.5 cm

20 WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Two Warms and Two Cools, 1970 Gouache on paper 20 x 20 in / 50.5 x 50.5 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Marine Motif with Two Variations (Dart Point), 1979/1990 Pencil, conté crayon and watercolour on handmade paper Monogrammed & dated on recto, signed, titled & dated with medium given on verso 31 x 17 in / 79 x 43.5 cm

21 GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Cliff profile, Oil & pencil on panel 5 x 6.5 in / 13 x 16.5 cm WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Variation on a Theme (Splintered ice No.2), 1987 Oil on canvas 36 x 48 in / 91.5 x 122 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust

22 WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Homage to Johnny, 2002 Screenprint (edition of 75) 10.5 x in / 26.5 x 35 cm Provenance: Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust Above: Collection of Pallant House Gallery, Chichester The George and Ann Dannatt Gift (2011) WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM ( ) Geoff and Scruffy Series, 1956 Oil on card Signed, titled & dated 5 x 8 in / 12.5 x 20 cm Right: Collection of the Barns Graham Trust JOHN WELLS ( ) Window, 1948 Mixed media on board 12 x 13.5 in / 30 x 35 cm The enduring friendship of Wilhelmina Barns Graham and John Wells, which spanned almost 60 years, came to an end with Wells death in His passing affected Barns Graham profoundly and she paid tribute to her old friend in a series of paintings (Goodbye Johnny) and the related print, Homage to Johnny, which was published in The photograph illustrated here shows the two artists on the rooftop cafe of the newly opened Tate St Ives in Wells and Barns Graham both had solo exhibitions at Tate St Ives during their lifetimes (in 1998 and 2000 respectively).

23 WILHELMINA BARNS GRAHAM GEORGE DANNATT Wilhelmina Barns Graham (known as Willie) was born in June 1912 in St Andrews, Scotland. From a young age she displayed a natural artistic ability which later earned her a place at the renowned Edinburgh College of Art where she enrolled in During her studies, Barns Graham was awarded numerous accolades including a travel scholarship that allowed her to study at the International Exhibition in Paris. Upon completing her diploma in 1937 and on the recommendation of the Principal of the art school, she moved down to St Ives. In 1942 Barns Graham formally joined the Newlyn Society of Artists and the St Ives Society of Artists. In 1949, Barns Graham was a founder member of the Penwith Society which was formed as a result of a schism that divided the original St Ives Society. Barns Graham, alongside Nicholson and Hepworth, founded the Penwith to advance the modernist cause and as a reaction to the innate conservatism of the old society. With her modernist credentials now assured, she began showing at some of the exhibitions and galleries that helped define the emergent post war abstract movement. After an introduction by Patrick Heron, she exhibited at Gimpel Fils in 1951 as part of a survey of British Abstract Art before holding her first solo exhibition in London at the Redfern Gallery in January A celebration of the British Artists of the 60s held at the Tate in London in 1977 featured Barns Graham as did the Tate Gallery 79 Exhibition two years later. Her work featured in the inaugural exhibition at the Tate St Ives in 1993 who presented a full solo exhibition of her work in She was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Scottish Photograph by Andur Gunn, 1966 (courtesy of the Barns Graham Trust) Academy from the mid 1950s until her death. Her work was the subject of a major exhibition at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in She is represented all major public collections of Modern British art, including institutions such as the Tate, V&A Museum and the National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. Waterhouse & Dodd are pleased to represent the Barns Graham Trust Born in Blackheath in 1915, it wasn t until the mid 1950s that George Dannatt came to the visual arts having trained and worked as a chartered surveyor and a music critic in the preceding decades. A meeting with Adrian Heath in 1955 at his studio in Soho proved to be a turning point for Dannatt. It exposed him to a group of artists that Heath was working with at the time including Kenneth and Mary Martin, Robert Adams and Victor Pasmore, all of whom were advancing the ideals of the constructivists, brought to Britain by the Russian sculptor Naum Gabo. Paying his first visit to Cornwall in 1963, Dannatt quickly became inextricably linked to the Cornish painters over the coming decades, both in his role as a fellow artist and a generous patron. Dannatt rejected developments in Pop and large scale painterly abstraction, favouring intimate geometrical compositions and aligning himself with the constructivist inheritance of both London and the south coast. His initial showing was at the Penwith Gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, in In 1974 he exhibited at the Newlyn Art Gallery in Penzance, where a year later he became a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists. The 1980s saw the Dannatts leave London to live near Shaftesbury, Dorset; the importance of landscape and locality succeeding as an enduring trait in Dannatt s work. A major exhibition dedicated to Dannatt s work and his collection was held at the Pallant House Gallery from June to September His work is in many major public collections, including Pallant House, Southampton City Art Gallery and the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. Waterhouse & Dodd are pleased to represent the George & Ann Dannatt Trust

24 JOHN WELLS Suggested further reading: John Clayworth Spencer Wells (known as Johnny) was born in 1907 in London. The son of a research doctor, a career in medicine beckoned and Wells duly undertook his degree at University College Hospital. However, it was the evening art classes taken at St Martin s School of Art that ignited a long lasting devotion to art. A visit to Cornwall in 1928 exposed him to the artistic community already establishing their pre eminence in St Ives. While there, Wells was introduced to Ben and Winifred Nicholson who would remain lifelong friends. This trip had a profound effect on Wells who developed a deep affinity with the coastal landscape, a subject he would frequently return to in his art. He continued to practice as a GP on the Isles of Scilly before moving to Newlyn in Cornwall to pursue a full time career as an artist in 1945 where he rented the former studio of Stanhope Forbes. Despite being based in Newlyn, Wells worked at the centre of artistic activity in post war St. Ives; he was a founder member of the Crypt Group in 1946 and of the Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall in A joint exhibition with Winifred Nicholson in 1946 at the Lefevre Gallery in London established Wells stature within British abstraction and was shown the following year at Downing s Bookshop in St Ives. Further afield, Wells work was exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris in 1949, at the San Paulo Biennale in 1951 and in New York at the Durlacher Gallery in 1952, 1958 and Wells success culminated in winning the Art Critics Prize for the British section, awarded to him in 1958 by the International Association of Art Critics. In 1960, the Waddington Galleries held his first solo exhibition which was met with great acclaim with a second solo show following in Subsequently, Wells retreated back to the familiar environs of the Cornish coast where he continued to paint and exhibit locally. A major retrospective of the artist s work was held at Tate St Ives in 1998, and Wells work can now be found in a number of public collections, both in Britain and abroad including Tate Britain, the British Museum, the Arts Council and the Yale Centre for British Art. Wilhelmina Barns Graham: A studio life, by Lynne Green, Lund Humphries (2001) John Wells: The Fragile Cell, by Matthew Rowe, Tate Gallery Publishing (1998) St Ives & British Modernism:The George & Ann Dannatt Collection, ed. Brandon Taylor, Pallant House Gallery (2015) John Wells & George Dannatt: Paintings and constructions, introduction by George Dannatt, Southampton City Art Gallery (2007) St Ives : Twenty five years of painting, sculpture and pottery, by David Brown (introduction by David Lewis), Tate Gallery (1985) The St Ives Artists: A biography of place and time, by Michael Bird, Lund Humphries (2008) Elements of Abstraction: Space, Line & Interval in Modern British Art, by Brandon Taylor & Alan Fowler, Southampton City Art Gallery (2006) With special thanks to: Jackie Sarafopoulos of the George and Ann Dannatt Trust Simon Martin and Harriet Judd of the Pallant House Gallery, Chichester Geoffrey Bertram, Robb Airey and Ross Irving of the Wilhelmina Barns Graham Trust Back cover image: GEORGE DANNATT ( ) Alkmaar Composition in White & Grey, 1984 Gouache & pencil on board x 8.5 in / 39 x 22 cm Catalogue written and published by Waterhouse & Dodd Printed by ArtQuarters Press Photography (except Barns Graham images) by Todd White Photography of Barns Graham artworks by Andy Phillipson/Livewireimage.com All images copyright of the artists

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