Orange, Black and Lilac Squares on Vermilion

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Wilhelmina BARNS-GRAHAM
Born St Andrews, 1912-2004

Orange, Black and Lilac Squares on Vermilion, 1968

Oil and Cryla on hardboard
Purchased 1968 with 50% NFA grant
Museum number 9-1968

Barns-Graham studied at Edinburgh College of Art. She moved to Cornwall in 1940, where a number of leading Modernist artists had gathered to escape war-time London. Inspired by their work and the surrounding sea- and landscape, Barns-Graham became a leading member of the St Ives School which came to the forefront of British art during the 1950s.

'Orange, Black and Lilac Squares on Vermilion' is related to the Things of a Kind in Order and Disorder series which preoccupied the artist during the 1960s. The changes in the colour sequence of this work indicate the phrasing of the Lord's Prayer. Thus an orange or black square indicates a space and the lilac square a letter. Thus the first two lines relate to 'Our Father, Which Art in Heaven'.