Private
Barbara Jones
(1912 - 1978)
Study for Man and his Senses, c. 1966-71
Barbara Jones (1912 - 1978)
£44,000
Size:
Height – 183cm
Width – 365.8cm
1 in stock
Provenance: Acquired from the artist’s studio, NW3, in 2010
Exhibited: Mural Art Today, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1962, no. 18.
Literature: Mural Art Today, 1962, Victoria & Albert Museum, p. 8, (reproduced p. 24); Ruth Artmonsky, Barbara Jones, Artmonsky Arts, 2008, p.142; British Murals and Decorative Painting 1920-1960, Sansom & Co, 2013, p.333.
Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.85.
Ruth Artmonksy records that Jones produced 29 murals of which only two are thought to have survived, (Ruth Artmonsky, Barbara Jones, Artmonsky Arts, 2008, p. 114).This statistic is probably indicative of a 90% destruction rate that British murals have in general been subjected to in the twentieth century.
The setting for Out in the Hall is the artist’s Hampstead Home No.2 Well Walk, which was filled with a lifetime of collecting eccentric objects. The picture on the stairs shows is a self portrait.
In Out in the Hall Jones showed her creative confidence in caricaturing an Edwardian house entrance hall, along with compulsory hatstand and family portrait; yet dominating the scene is a large stuffed bear carrying a tray! The whole image was built up over three panels, some 12 ft in length, and much resembles the hallway to Barbara’s own house, filled as it was with macabre miscellanea.’ (Ruth Artmonsky, British Murals & Decorative Painting 1920-1960, Sansom & Co, 2013, p.333)
Barbara Jones first attended art school in Croydon (1931’33) before
winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art (1933’36), where
she met painter Cliff Barry whom she married in 1941.
A prolific and varied artist, during WWII she worked with
the Pilgrim Trust on the Recording Britain series, making one of
the largest contributions of the 63 artists taking part. She wrote
and illustrated books on design history, many of which are today
considered seminal, including The Unsophisticated Arts, 1951 and
Design for Death, 1967.
In 1951, she organised the Black Eyes and Lemonade: Curating
Popular Art exhibition held at the Whitechapel Gallery for the Festival
of Britain. A fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists from the same
year, she was made vice president in 1969. She was also a fellow of
the Royal Anthropological Institute and a member of the Society of
Authors. A retrospective exhibition of the contents of her studio was
held at Katharine House Gallery, Marlborough, in 1999.
With thanks to artbiogs.co.uk
