Yvonne Rosalind Barlow

Yvonne Rosalind Barlow (née Tanner; 10 September 1924 – 2 February 2017) was a British artist who was born in Muswell Hill, North London.'Births Registered in October, November and December, 1924', Edmonton District Records, Volume 3a, p.694. See transcriptions of General Register Office index, FreeBMD database. Her mother, Clare Clements, was English and her father, Walter Tanner, was Swiss; Barlow was the youngest of five siblings.
Oil paintings form the core of Barlow’s oeuvre, but she also produced many pen-and-ink sketches, watercolours, and worked in gouache.Yvonne Barlow, Retrospective: A Lifetime of Painting from 1950 (London: Belgravia Gallery, 2011), p.26. Catalogue published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name, presented at the Belgravia Gallery, November 2011. Her work is held in private art collections internationally. Individual works can be seen in Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, and Cambridge University Library, and a collection is on display in Newnham College, Cambridge.
The critic and artist John Berger described Barlow’s art as being ‘eloquent, diverse, and mysterious’, arguing that they show ‘a musical sense of composition’.
==Career==
Barlow won a scholarship to study at the Central School of Art, London, in the early 1940s.Yvonne Barlow, Retrospective (2011), p.24. A student during the Second World War, she experienced the bombing of London by V1 and V2 bombs. She studied an Art Teacher’s Diploma, which consisted of three years at art school followed by a year of teacher training at the University of London and a teaching placement.Yvonne Barlow: "Encounters" (London: Christopher Hull Gallery, 1989). Published in conjunction with exhibition of the same name at the Christopher Hull Gallery, London, 18 January to 11 February 1989. The art school programme was comprehensive, covering anatomy, architecture, perspective, composition, life drawing, and history of art. After finishing her qualification, Barlow worked for Mass Observation before becoming an art teacher at a school for handicapped children in Vauxhall, a job she held until 1952.Yvonne Barlow: Paintings and Drawings (London: Christopher Hull Gallery, 1981). Published in conjunction with exhibition of the same name at the Christopher Hull Gallery in Fulham, London, 3-31 July 1981.
Barlow first exhibited solo in January 1964 at the Upper Grosvenor Gallery, exhibiting painting and collage.Yvonne Barlow: An Exhibition of Paintings, presented at Upper Grosvenor Gallery, London, 7-31 January 1964. She went on to have numerous solo exhibitions in London, Oxford, and Cambridge, including three at the Christopher Hull Gallery (July 1981, February 1989, and February 1995).Yvonne Barlow, "Crossing the Water": Recent Paintings (London: Christopher Hull Gallery, 1995). Published in conjunction with exhibition of the same name, 1-25 February 1995. See also exhibition brochures cited above: Yvonne Barlow: Paintings and Drawings (1981) and Yvonne Barlow: "Encounters" (1989). In 1984, contextualising her exhibition "Atlantis and Other Paintings" at Churchill College, Cambridge, Barlow identified a decade-long period of her work across the 1960s to 1970s that could be "loosely call[ed] abstract expressionism", some of which experimented with a restricted colour palette.Yvonne Barlow, "Atlantis and Other Paintings" (privately printed, 1984). Published in conjunction with exhibition of the same title, at Churchill College, Cambridge. Material regarding the exhibition can be found in the Churchill College Archives, file reference: GBR/0014/CCRF/119/3. In the mid-1970s she returned to painting with a much wider colour palette and adopted a looser style."Atlantis and Other Paintings" (1984) She exhibited at Wolfson College, Oxford in 2007 and a retrospective exhibition of her work was presented at the Belgravia Gallery in November 2011.See the exhibition catalogue, Yvonne Barlow, Retrospective (2011).
Barlow had a joint exhibition with John Berger in November 2015, when their pictorial correspondence was shown in Lisbon as part of the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival. Her work was included in the group exhibition “Seeing Through Drawing: a celebration of John Berger” (July-August 2017) at Mandell’s Gallery in Norwich.
==Personal Life==
At the Central School of Art, Barlow was friends with fellow students Robert Addington and John Drummond.Yvonne Barlow, Retrospective (2011), p.24. She also met John Berger during her student years, a friendship which lasted the rest of their lives.
Barlow married Andrew Dalmahoy Barlow on 13 November 1951, a son of Nora Barlow, Lady Barlow (née Darwin).'Marriages Registered in October, November and December, 1951', Pancras District Records, Volume 5d p.814. See transcriptions of General Register Office index, FreeBMD database. They had two children, both born in the early 1950s: Martin Thomas Barlow and Dr Claire Yvonne Barlow.
In 1963, Barlow rented a studio at 295 Portobello Road, above the record shop and boutique Forbidden Fruit. Later, she moved to a studio in Golbourne Road, from which much of her work was produced.Yvonne Barlow, Retrospective (2011), p.25. In 1967, Barlow and her husband purchased a remote house on the Scottish island of Inch Kenneth, a location that featured repeatedly in her art.Yvonne Barlow, Retrospective (2011), p.25.
She lived in London throughout her adult life. 
Category:1924 births
Category:People from Muswell Hill
Category:British people
Category:British artists