Barbara Rae at Canada House

The entrance to this exhibition through the airport style Canadian Embassy was a little unnerving but as soon as I entered the room of Barbara Rae’s artwork accompanied by Inuit sculpture, I was really glad I had come.

I’d read some of the book that accompanies the exhibition and learnt a bit about Rae’s arctic expeditions over three years. She had to work differently when she was in the Arctic as it was often too cold (or dangerous – polar bears) to paint/sketch outside. There’s a great little book ‘Barbara Rae: Arctic Sketchbooks’ full of sketches and observations. If you’re  interested in Rae and her journeys have a look at this interview in the RA magazine:

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/ra-magazine-barbara-rae-northwest-passage.

There was only a single room of work but it was well set out and contained many paintings and prints. (The original exhibition at the RSA had been larger https://www.royalscottishacademy.org/exhibitions/barbara-rae-the-northwest-passage/). I liked the ambience with grey walls and lighting which really set off the work well.

My personal favourites of Rae’s work were her monoprints, framed and set out as a group of 8. I liked their simplicity, lack of overworking and colours.

I found the large paintings interesting but struggled to engage with the use of glittery iridescent paints. However I can totally see why Rae used these as when I’ve spent time in the arctic there is an ethereal quality to the light that would be hard to capture. I did like her use of collage for receding icebergs painted over and becoming part of the canvas. There were other bits of collage I thought were less effective and I realised that the collage I liked was when she had used only shapes rather than having pictures printed onto the collage.

The other treat was to see Rae’s sketchbooks laid out in a glass case. I would love to have been able to look through them but the display gave a sense of how she works and was really inspiring for making me want to keep similar records.

There was however a piece in the room that blew all the others out of the water. This Inuit sculpture ‘Sakeassie’ made from whalebone was stunning. The use of the natural shapes of the bone and simplicity of the carving were beautiful. The Inuit pieces were all fascinating and came from the Belle Shenkman Collection (Belle Shenkman was an arts patron and fundraiser who promoted Inuit art among many other things).

I do think that the setting of the Inuit art with the Barbara Rae artwork really enhanced both sets of pieces. If you get the chance then I’d definitely recommend a visit to this wonderful capsule exhibition which tells a succinct and beautiful tale of an arctic journey.