Brian Barnes obituary

 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/28/brian-barnes-obituary

This is the Guardian obituary of the artist Brian Barnes who was famous for 

his murals, mainly in and around Battersea in south London. He was a Green Party member. More details of his work can be found in

For Walls With Tongues Publication, £20 incld. p&P

For Walls With Tongues is a collection of essays developed from interviews with some of the mural painters active between 1966 and 1985 in the UK; supplemented with 5 essays about artists who we researched but could not interview and an essay by Professor Bill Rolston about external murals in Northern Ireland.

It is available from bookshops or directly from Greenwich Mural Workshop using the contact email from this website.

Priced at £20 including post & package. Payment can be made either by cheque sent to Carol Kenna, GMW, 78 Kinveachy Gardens, Charlton , London SE7 8EJ  or by BACS payment, details given on request.

 

Brian Barnes obituary

Detail from a Brian Barnes mural on a wall in Battersea, south-west London

Steve Lobb

Tue 28 Dec 2021 17.01 GMT

•  
•  
•  

My friend Brian Barnes, who has died aged 77 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, was a celebrated muralist and a leading light in the community arts movement. Warm-hearted, funny, outspoken and a hugely gifted artist, he created murals around south London for more than 45 years.

He was born in Farnborough, Kent, and raised in nearby St Paul’s Cray, the first child of William Barnes, chief executive of the Mullard electrical components company, and his wife, Eileen (nee Hiley), a seamstress at Morphy Richards. His parents supported him in everything and he had a happy childhood. Brian’s first school was Gray’s Farm primary, then Midfield secondary school for boys.

Aside from painting murals, Brian Barnes designed and printed campaign posters for activists. Photograph: Silvia

He began a course at Ravensbourne College of Art (now Ravensbourne University London) in 1961, leading to a national diploma in design. There he met Aileen McKeegan, studying fabric design, and they married in 1964. Brian stood out as a determined realist painter and went on to study at the Royal College of Art, where he graduated in 1969 with beautifully composed and detailed work.

Moving to Battersea, south-west London, the couple found a leftwing group of friends and became activists, campaigning for better social provision in housing, parks and jobs and protesting against rent rises and the redevelopment of Battersea power station and the riverfront for the wealthy.

The necessity of creating art expressing social concerns gave Brian a new direction, and a bolder style for his work. In 1973 he began printing silkscreen posters at home for campaigns. Demand grew and by 1977 his print workshop was producing hundreds of posters for the community.

Then came the murals. His first, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in 1975, was vast, and was painted with 90 volunteers, near Battersea Bridge. On the “good” end were pictures of socialist goals, in the centre a “rainbow” broom swept away the capitalists’ failure. It became a popular landmark. A year later the wall was demolished. Protesters arrived in thousands, Battersea Bridge was closed and the artist arrested.

More large scale gable-end murals followed; sunny evocations like Day at the Seaside and Battersea in Perspective. Then anti-war murals: Nuclear Dawn in Brixton, with its threatening skeleton, and Riders of the Apocalypse in New Cross, featuring world leaders riding rockets around a besieged world, above a tender rendering of messages at Greenham Common. There were many more murals for creches, nurseries, schools, towns, estates and railway stations.

Detail from a Brian Barnes mural in Stockwell, south London, celebrating the life of the second world war special operations agent Violette Szabo

The Stockwell war memorial, begun in 1999, was the work he returned to often. It is a joyful mural with many images, dedicated to the fallen in the world wars, and celebrating local residents such as Vincent Van Gogh and the second world war special operations agent Violette Szabo, as well as the Windrush immigrants who spent their first night in Britain in the area.

Brian was appointed MBE in 2005 for services to the Battersea community. He is survived by Aileen and their children, Eloise and Glenn, and grandchildren Daniel, Lilya and Natalya.