Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was one of the most significant British artists of the 20th century. Her primary practice of painting and printmaking was supported throughout her artistic career with drawing. She referred to drawing as ‘a discipline of the mind’, a mental exercise to explore and examine the visual world around her. Including over 40 works, this exhibition ranges from energy drawings inspired by the sea and currents to natural forms, rocks, trees, ice and landscapes.

Barns-Graham was a key contributor to the St Ives School. Scottish by birth, but based in St Ives for an extensive period, her contemporaries included Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth.

The exhibition is supplemented in Perth with a small display of works by the St Ives School on loan from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Aberdeen Art Gallery and mima, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.

The exhibition is curated by Mel Gooding for The Pier Arts Centre in collaboration with The Barns-Graham Charitable Trust.

The exhibition is sponsored in Perth by The Perth Festival of the Arts to mark the centenary of the artist’s birth in 2012 .

Clip taken from BBC programme 'Primetime' on opening of Tate St Ives.

Programme - 'Primetime'

Title - 'St Ives Tate'

Date - 17/02/93

Director - Jane Stimpson