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Kit Barker

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Kit Barker
Born1879
London,England
Died1965
OccupationBritish Army

Kit Barker(1916–1988) was a British painter.

Biography

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Barker was born inLondon,England,to English father George Barker (1879–1965), a police constable and former Army batman, and Irish mother Marion Frances (1881–1953), née Taaffe, fromMornington, County Meath,nearDrogheda,Ireland.[1][2][3][4]His elder brother was the poetGeorge Barker;they were raised atBattersea, London,and the family later lived at Upper Addison Gardens,Holland Park.[5]

Barker served in theBritish Armyfrom 1942 to 1945. In 1948 he married the writerIlse Gross(1921–2006), who wrote under thepen nameKathrine Talbot.They had one son, Thomas (born 1962).[6]Barker lived in Cornwall from 1947 to 1948, where he and Ilse were involved with the artists' colony inSt Ives.[7]

In 1949 the Barkers travelled to the USA where Kit lectured atSkidmore Collegein New York. Kit later taught withHassel Smith,Elmer BischoffandDavid Parkat theCalifornia School of Fine ArtsinSan Francisco(1951–1952). During their time in the USA, the Barkers stayed atYaddoartists' community inSaratoga Springs,New York.[7]

From 1953 Barker lived onBexley hill,Sussex[7]and travelled extensively in Europe and the US. He died in West Sussex in 1988.

Career

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Barker was a self-taught artist. His influences included thesurrealists– he exhibited some surrealist paintings.

His work is found in private collections in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Italy, South Africa, Sweden, the United States and Germany.

Public collections

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Barkers works have been purchased by:

Major solo exhibitions

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  • 1950 Weyhe Gallery, New York
  • 1951 Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco
  • 1951 St. Louis Artists' Guild, St Louis
  • 1957 Hanover Gallery, London
  • 1959Waddington Galleries,London
  • 1960 Waddington Galleries, Montreal
  • 1961 Waddington Galleries, London
  • 1964 Waddington Galleries, London
  • 1965 Waddington Galleries, Montreal
  • 1966 Waddington Galleries, London
  • 1967 Waddington Galleries, Montreal
  • 1970 Arthur Tooth & Sons, London
  • 1971 Villiers Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
  • 1972 Toorak Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
  • 1972 Arthur Tooth & Sons, London
  • 1978 Christ's Hospital Arts Centre, Horsham, Sussex
  • 1981 The New Arts Centre, London
  • 1988 Newburg Street Gallery, London
  • 2001University College Chichester,Otter Gallery, Sussex
  • 2005The Canon Gallery Petworth,Sussex

Barker had regular one man exhibitions throughout the 1960s and 1970s at: The David Paul Gallery, Chichester, Sussex; Reid Gallery, Guildford, Surrey and Century Galleries, Henley on Thames.

Major group exhibitions

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Other reproduced works include

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  • Frost and Reed [Venture] prints, 'Marsh Grasses & Inner Harbour, Concarneau 1964.
  • Winter AtGurnard's Head,poem poster withDavid WrightMidNAG 1979.
  • Curlew, poem poster withLeslie NorrisArmstrong poem poster 1969.
  • North Haven, poem poster withElizabeth BishopLord John Press 1979.

References

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  1. ^George Barker, Martha Fodaski, Twayne Publishers, 1969, p. 13
  2. ^"The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49571.ISBN978-0-19-861412-8.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  3. ^"The cold heart of passion's thief".
  4. ^Encyclopaedia of British Writers, From 1800 to the Present, second edition, 20th Century and Beyond, ed. George Stade et al, DWJ Books LLC, 2009, p. 35
  5. ^Rough Draft: The Modernist Diaries of Emily Holmes Coleman, 1929-1937, ed. Elizabeth Podnieks, University of Delaware Press, 2012, p. 252
  6. ^Ilse Barker's obituary in the Times
  7. ^abcOldham, Alison (3 June 2006)."Obituary: Ilse Barker".The Guardian.Retrieved16 May2014.

Further reading

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  • 'Contemporary British Art',Herbert Read,Penguin Books, [illustrated work p42].ISBN978-0-14-020250-2
  • St Ives 1939-64 Twenty Five Years Of Painting, Sculpture And Pottery,Tate GalleryPublications, 1985ISBN0-946590-20-6.
  • Kit Barker, Cornwall 1947-1948 Recollections Of Painters And Writers, Kathrine Talbot, The Book Gallery, 1993ISBN1-897986-02-5(Kathrine Talbotwas the pen name of Barker's wife, Ilse.)
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