In approaching the reputation and legacy of modernist painter, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, film-maker Mark Cousins makes it clear that conventional story-telling will not do. A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things is a textural, emotive documentary of an artist he calls – and with good reason – a “forgotten visionary”.
Born in 1912, Barns-Graham lived and worked in St. Ives at the same time as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, but her name threatened to disappear entirely in the later 20th century. While her early career saw success: her work was regularly exhibited in the 1950’s; the 1960’s saw a decline in interest. Barns-Graham’s preoccupations with pattern and geometry got sidelined: her emphasis on blocky shapes did not vibe with the cool sensuality of Bridget Riley’s stripes.
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things not only details the development of Barns-Graham’s career, but lets us observe her journey for ourselves. Halfway through the documentary, Cousins’ narration falls silent and we are presented with a montage of her work including an extraordinary, energetic last phase. We see progression and exploration. The effect is hypnotic. Barns-Graham’s paintings come alive with bands of vibrant colour. Cousins’ decision to illustrate Barns-Graham’s technique and preoccupations in this way means we get a clear idea of what the art of Barns-Graham is all about. Shown like this, it makes the art world’s dismissal of her as an “also-ran” all the more astonishing.
The documentary’s aim is just this: to ask us to continually adjust our perceptions. The film starts with photos of her as an elderly woman: perm, glasses, sensible shoes. But the uncompromising stare at the camera tells a different story. Barns-Graham’s biography is – at every turn – unexpected. She was born into minor Scottish gentry, but rebelled against her conventional upbringing to pursue a career in art. Her father, who Cousins amusingly describes as a “block of Edwardian granite”, tried to put obstacles in his daughter’s path, but it turned out that getting around obstacles, for Barns-Graham, was a bit of a speciality.
Studying at Edinburgh College of Art, Barns-Graham used her wealth and privilege to travel the world. A pivotal experience occurs in 1949 when she climbs the Grindelwald Glacier in Switzerland. It was an unusual feat for a woman at that time: the photographs show an elated Barns-Graham in hiking boots. The colours and textures of the glacial environment – brilliantly captured by Cousins in beautiful close-ups – stay with Barns-Graham for the rest of her life. Her work becomes an obsessive chasing of abstract shapes and silhouettes. She returns to these themes again and again. It is a moment of artistic reckoning.
Glacier Study, Switzerland, 1949
Cousins divides the film into chapters, but within that structure is a unique, rhythmic editing of material. The film pulses with snapshots (Barns-Graham’s youthful beauty is irresistible) and they are interspersed with longer, considered passages of film. The combination works: A Sudden Glimpse delivers a great deal of biographical detail but it never feels heavy. Cousins’ close camera work, revisiting the same environments that Barns-Graham saw, offers a suggestion of the colours and shapes that inspired her. The wealth of textures are what echo throughout Barns-Graham’s work. An anti-conformist at every turn, Barns-Graham never went with the obvious. Even during her travels in Italy, it wasn’t the gallery frescoes that intrigued her, but the landscape outside.
Mark Cousins (credit: Karlovy Vary)
Cousins explores this non-conformity more deeply, when he discusses her neurodiversity (she experienced synaesthesia), which saw her attribute colours to numbers. The importance and significance of colour for her is illuminated through an exploration of previously-unseen notebooks. The bringing together of certain colours isn’t just about making patterns, but locating meaning. The film also makes use of Barns-Graham’s diaries – voiced by Tilda Swinton – and we have a parallel narration in the artist’s own words. Describing herself as “looking for different answers”, her reputation started to recede more seriously in the 1970’s, as art collectors looked to more established (male) artists for solid returns on their investment. It isn’t until the 1990’s that the tide begins to turn for Barns-Graham. Her role in British modernism is revised: its importance is confirmed. She receives honorary doctorates from the University of St. Andrews, followed by Plymouth and Exeter soon after. In 2001, working with curator Lynne Green, a book, A Studio Life, is published. She also receives a CBE.
Original screenprints (made between 2000-2006) donated to Arts University Plymouth in October 2017 by the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust.
In the film’s final analysis, Cousins suggests that Barns-Graham is a “genius by accumulation”, in the vein of Raphael and Rilke, and it’s hard to argue with that. Barns-Graham’s style is indicative of an artist who never switched off: she was always observing, always taking note. A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things not only examines Barns-Graham’s creative process, but makes larger points about the importance of having that space to think and build. The breakthroughs that Barns-Graham experienced were the result of a life that allowed room for that art to develop. A Sudden Glimpse isn’t just a portrait of the artist, but a film that argues, persuasively, for artistic space and freedom. Barns-Graham met with resistance at every level, but the work still stands.
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things is showing at Plymouth Arts Cinema from 21st – 23rd October. We are delighted to welcome film director Mark Cousins for an introduction and post-screening Q&A on Monday 21 October.
Reviewed by Helen Tope
