A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things
Mark Cousins’ exploration of the life and work of Scottish abstract painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham is a typically thoughtful and idiosyncratic take on the under-appreciated artist
Mark Cousins's latest cine-essay explores the life and work of Wilhelmina ‘Willie’ Barns-Graham, an abstract artist who was pushed aside in favour of male contemporaries in her lifetime but has been increasingly heralded as a key figure in 20th-century British painting. This film is an impassioned attempt to solidify that position while providing an introduction for those unfamiliar.
Cousins is best known for his cinema documentaries, but this prolific filmmaker has strayed into myriad subjects (his last film, the marvellous The March on Rome, examined the rise of Fascism in Italy). A Sudden Glimpse... maintains his idiosyncratic style: rather than a straight documentary, Cousins mixes the gonzo and the impressionistic, drawing as much on the adventures his own interests take him on as it does your typical talking heads.
The film acts as a kind of detective story, trying to get to the very centre of Barns-Graham as an artist. It’s a technique you could take umbrage with: there’s rarely some neat ‘Rosebud’ moment to encapsulate any one person’s life, but it certainly makes for an interesting journey. This structure affords a more meandering momentum, but there’s a sense of accumulating little clues to the core of Barns-Graham, and Cousins’ curiosity and openness stop it from sitting still for too long. It also allows for formal dalliances like the montage at the film's core, a breathtaking stream of Barns-Graham's artwork combined with Linda Buckley’s sublime score. It may feel slight in its D.I.Y. nature, but this is another strong addition to Cousins’s singular catalogue.
Released 18 Oct by CONIC; certificate 12A