Mary Barnes: Boo-Bah
16 January - 29 March 2015
The Nunnery, Bow Arts, London
The works in this exhibition, created by prolific outsider artist Mary Barnes (1923 - 2001), were predominantly from the collection of Dr Joseph Berke, Barnes' therapist and friend. The show was named in honour of the pair's relationship, following Barnes' nicknaming of Berke "Boo-Bah" in a metre-high love letter that appeared in the Nunnery display.
Barnes' close relationship with Berke came after she moved to Kingsley Hall in 1965, following a diagnosis of schizophrenia. At Kingsley Hall, she joined the Philadelphia Association which was an alternative treatment community created by psychiatrist R. D. Laing and colleagues. At this time, Berke came to work for Laing as a recent graduate. Their bond was strong, and has been immortalised in a book co-authored by the artist and Berke entitled Mary Barnes: Two Accounts of a Journey through Madness, and dramatised in the play Mary Barnes by David Edgar. It was, in fact, Berke who introduced Barnes to art-making, providing her with crayons and encouraging her to paint with her fingers at the height of her illness.
From the exhibition, it seems Barnes' nature- and religion-inspired works can be split into two distinctive styles. Either dry, scratchy black marks carving out shadows and shapes onto the paper; or bold, gnarled colours through which faces and figures emerge. There were a couple of exceptions to this, namely three paintings in which bright colour bursts outwards, instead of curling and caving inwards. Some longer pieces showed the glimpses of empty paper to be just as much an integral part of the piece as the brushstrokes of paint themselves.
The artist's voice and personality and her relationship with Berke was strong throughout the show, with images narrating her late life, when she would travel the world, lecturing on art and mental health and exhibiting her work. Also a writer and a poet, her words were a prominent part of the show; for example, a piece that saw the merging of visual art and storytelling - aimed at children - that spoke of a baby bear who had experienced a nasty bee sting.
The exhibition was fittingly held in Bow, East London, bringing Barnes' work home to where her artistic career began back in the 1960s.
Barnes' close relationship with Berke came after she moved to Kingsley Hall in 1965, following a diagnosis of schizophrenia. At Kingsley Hall, she joined the Philadelphia Association which was an alternative treatment community created by psychiatrist R. D. Laing and colleagues. At this time, Berke came to work for Laing as a recent graduate. Their bond was strong, and has been immortalised in a book co-authored by the artist and Berke entitled Mary Barnes: Two Accounts of a Journey through Madness, and dramatised in the play Mary Barnes by David Edgar. It was, in fact, Berke who introduced Barnes to art-making, providing her with crayons and encouraging her to paint with her fingers at the height of her illness.
From the exhibition, it seems Barnes' nature- and religion-inspired works can be split into two distinctive styles. Either dry, scratchy black marks carving out shadows and shapes onto the paper; or bold, gnarled colours through which faces and figures emerge. There were a couple of exceptions to this, namely three paintings in which bright colour bursts outwards, instead of curling and caving inwards. Some longer pieces showed the glimpses of empty paper to be just as much an integral part of the piece as the brushstrokes of paint themselves.
The artist's voice and personality and her relationship with Berke was strong throughout the show, with images narrating her late life, when she would travel the world, lecturing on art and mental health and exhibiting her work. Also a writer and a poet, her words were a prominent part of the show; for example, a piece that saw the merging of visual art and storytelling - aimed at children - that spoke of a baby bear who had experienced a nasty bee sting.
The exhibition was fittingly held in Bow, East London, bringing Barnes' work home to where her artistic career began back in the 1960s.