Biography
Patricia Nichol Barnes (b. Chicago, Illinois USA 1928 - d. Evanston, Illinois, USA 2019) attended Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, before getting marred to Ned Bothfeld and having four children. She later attended Northwestern Univeristy for post-graduate degree and became a real estate investor. She subsequently married the antiquarian book dealer, Richard S. Barnes, whom she assisted and became a book and art collector herself. She lived in London in her later years and was inspired by the art of Vanessa Bell and the Bloomsbury Group, including owning the portrait of E. M. Forster, painted in 1911 by his friend Roger Fry at his house, Durbins outside Guildford, Surrey, and exhibited at his solo show at the Alpine Gallery, London in 1912. Barnes had bought it from the art dealer, Anthony d'Offay in 1984 and it set an auction record at Bonhams (£260,000) in July 2020 after her death. Barnes sought to create a salon in her adored London town house, discussing art and literature well into the night with groups of artist friends. She also became a noted collector of contemporary British ceramics, including extensive works of Brian Illsley, Alison Britton, Carol McNicoll, Ewen Henderson, and David Garland - 100 of which were gifted by her estate to the Contempoaray Art Society and donated to three museums, York Art Gallery, MIMA and The Hepworth in the UK, and the Art Institute of Chicago. As one artist friend keenly observed, "she had an exquisite eye for the best stuff".
Patricia Barnes was guided by a passion for literature and art, teaching composition briefly at Malcolm X College and running an antiquarian bookstore with her husband Richard S. Barnes. After moving to London part time, Patricia Barnes became an avid collector of contemporary British ceramics and sculpture. Her collection grew large enough for Barnes to open an art gallery, The London Gallery, in Illinois. The London Gallery granted a new exposure to an American audience with an interest in British ceramics. Between managing the gallery and living in London, Barnes shared her love of and delight in contemporary British artists, cementing her reputation as a pioneer in the field of collecting. Barnes’s legacy has secured her an important place in this history; she will be remembered as one of few female collectors, a rarity in her lifetime. The Contemporary Art Society were granted the pleasure of working with the family of Patricia Barnes to gift a large collection of these works to three member museums, York Art Gallery; The Hepworth Wakefield and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA). These works span a range of Barnes’s collecting, reflecting her aesthetics and eye for exquisite ceramics. The collection for Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art is diverse, including an elegant teacup by Ryoji Koie, and a set of dinner plates by Hylton Nel and a dish by Jacqui Poncelet – both with intricate figurative designs. York Art Gallery have received a large collection of works, including sets of cups by Carol McNicoll and Edla Griffiths, examples of British studio pottery. The Hepworth Wakefield have received a collection of works including an elaborate dish by esteemed ceramicists Alison Britton OBE and Ladi Kwali MBE.
