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Barbara Rae has said, becoming a Dame is unlikely to change her work and she will still be putting on her“paint-splattered overall to create in her studio each day”.
The painter and master print maker has been awarded a Dame hood for services to art in this New Years Honours 2025.
Dame Barbara studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1961 to 1965 and went on to teach art in secondary schools,and then lecture at Aberdeen College of Education and later at Glasgow School of Art from 1975 to 1996.
Her work has been shown around the world in both group and solo exhibitions, including at venues in Chicago,New York, Washington, Santa Fe, Oslo, Hong Kong, Dublin and Belfast.
The artist said she was momentarily “lost for words” when she first heard about the honour.
I hope it helps to draw attention to the many talented Scots artists painting and printmaking in Scotland
She said: “I was in my painting studio and received a call from a woman with a lovely Irish accent, calling from the UK Cabinet Office.
“She had been searching for me for months; her office had an old address, years out of date. Her accent and politeness stopped me from replacing the receiver assuming it a scam.
“When I realised it was a genuine phone call, I was lost for words – only momentarily.”
Asked how she feels about the honour, she said: “When recommendation comes from peers and friends, it’s an honour that one can hardly refuse.”
Dame Barbara is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts
Her art is held in national museums, galleries and by collectors around the world, and she has received many awards and prizes throughout her career, including the Guthrie Medal and the Hunting Group Prize.
She has honorary doctorates from the universities of St Andrews, Aberdeen and Napier.
The artist finds inspiration in travel and often heads off for weeks at a time to remote locations including the Arizona desert, and the ice floes and Inuit villages of the Northwest Passage, Baffin Island and Hudson’s Bay as well as the Scottish Highlands and west of Ireland.
She visited the Arctic four times with an Inuit guide, before mounting a major exhibition, and in 2023 visited the Antarctic.
A Barbara Rae commissioned original artwork stamp to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Academy of Arts was issued by Royal Mail in 2018. The artist’s creative output also includes portraits, tapestries, ceramics, jewellery and a Royal Mail-commissioned stamp issued in 2018 depicting Edinburgh Castle
Pondering on how the dame hood will affect her work, Dame Barbara said: “The question only time can answer is,how will the honour change my working existence? Probably very little.
“I will still have to get into my studio in the morning and put on my paint-splattered overalls to create new work. Every day remains a challenge.”
Born in 1943 in Falkirk, the artist is now based in Edinburgh and was made a CBE in 1999.
She hopes the dame hood will help raise the profile of the arts in Scotland.
Dame Barbara said: “I hope it helps to draw attention to the many talented Scots artists painting and printmaking in Scotland.
“The fact is, not enough recognition is given to Scottish artists. When a Scot is honoured, it tends to be the winner of a commercially sponsored and promoted UK-wide prize.
- Article :The Independent Newspaper 30 December 2024
Awards and honors to include:
Scottish Arts Council Award (1975)
Guthrie Medal (Royal Scottish Academy) (1977)
Scottish Arts Council Award (1981)
Calouste Gulbenkian Printmaking Award (1983)
Sir William Gillies Travel Award (Royal Scottish Academy)(1983)
May Marshall Brown Award (The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water colour) (1983)
Scottish Arts Council grant (1989)
Hunting Group Prize (1990)
Alexander Graham Munro Award (The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water colour)
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Honorary doctorate, Napier University (2002)
Honorary doctorate, Aberdeen University
Honorary fellowship, Royal College of Art (2008)
Honorary doctorate, University of St Andrews
Elected a Fellow of Royal Society of Edinburgh (2011)
Solo exhibitions
1967 - New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh
1977 - Gilbert Parr Gallery, London
1978 - University of Edinburgh
1979 - The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1983 - The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1985 - Wright Gallery, Dallas, Texas, USA
1986 - Leinster Fine Art, London
1987 - The Scottish Gallery, London
1988 - Glasgow Print Studio
1989 - The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1990 - Landmarks and Docklands, The Scottish Gallery, London
1991 - The Scottish Gallery, London
1992 - Perth Museum and Art Gallery
1992 - Earth Pattern, William Jackson Gallery, London
1993 - New Monotypes and Prints, Glasgow Print Studio
1993 - The Reconstructed Landscape, Highland Regional Council, touring the North of Scotland
1994 - Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin
1994 - Theatre Andre Dumas, Germain-en-Laye
1994 - The Reconstructed Landscape, Harewood House, Leeds
1995 - Art First, London
1995 - The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1996 - Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin
1996 - Art First, London
1996 - Waxlander Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
1996 - Bohun Gallery, Henley-on-Thames
1997 - New Paintings, (The South Africa Series), Art First,London
1998 - The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1998 - Edinburgh The Festival City, Galleri Galtung, Oslo
1999 - The Painted Desert, Art First, London
2000 - West, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2001 - Zuma Beach, Art First, London
2002 - Paintings from Ireland, Art First, London
2003 - Travelog, Glasgow Print Studio
2003 - an-tiarthar – the West, The Scottish Gallery,Edinburgh
2004 - Print Exhibition, North House Gallery, Essex
2004 - New Paintings, The Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast
2005 - Barbara Rae Mono types, The Scottish Gallery
2005 - Print Exhibition, North House Gallery, Essex
2005 - New Paintings, Adam Gallery, London & Bath
2006 - Sierra - New Paintings from Spain, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2008 - New Paintings, Adam Gallery, London & Bath
2009 - Vignettes from Ireland, Adam Gallery, London
2009 - Recent Paintings, Richmond Hill Gallery, London
2010 - Barbara Rae RA: Prints, Sir Hugh Casson Room, Royal Academy, London
2010 - Celtic Connections Adam Gallery, London
2014 - University of St Andrews, Glasgow
2016 - Portland Gallery, London
2018 - Barbara Rae: The Northwest Passage - The Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture
2018 - Barbara Rae: The Northwest Passage with Inuit sculpture from the Belle Shenkman Collection - Canada Gallery, Canada House, London
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