Barbara McGivern

Key facts

Lived

1957–2019, Canadian^[1]

Wikipedia

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• What is Barbara McGivern known for?+

  Barbara McGivern is known for incorporating real gold leaf into her acrylic paintings. She treated gold as a colour, which gave her work a luminous quality.
• What is Barbara McGivern's most famous work?+

  Barbara Meikle, a New Mexican artist, has owned her gallery in Santa Fe for fifteen years. She creates a range of artworks including oil on canvas and bronze sculptures. Her subjects include horses, burros, animals, and New Mexican scenes. Meikle often paints in open air near the Chama River or Ghost Ranch, as well as in her studio. Her bronze sculpture is an extension of her paintings, with hot colour patinas applied by the artist. Each piece is unique, with brilliant hues painted, thrown, or airbrushed on the bronze. Examples of her work include *Meeting at the River*, *Riverflow to Sunset*, and *Cactus Garden Hummer*. Meikle also raises money for horse and donkey rescues around the country, and for the local wildlife centre. She paints images of wild horses in New Mexico and Arizona in hopes of inspiring people to donate to rescues, or rescue a donkey or horse themselves.
• What should I know about Barbara McGivern's prints?+

  Barbara McGivern's prints are original artworks, conceived and executed as prints, rather than reproductions of existing works in other media. Each print is created from a plate, stone, screen, or block made specifically for that purpose. The artist inks and pulls each print individually; this makes it a "multi-original" medium. Printmakers often create limited editions, where the artist decides the number of prints. Each print in the edition is numbered sequentially (for example, 12/25, meaning the twelfth print of an edition of twenty-five). This numbering provides an accounting of the prints. The edition number and the print number are typically written on the bottom left margin of the print, in pencil. The title is written in the centre, and the artist's signature appears on the right. The Professional Art Dealers Association of Canada (PADAC) has defined an original print as an image conceived by the artist as a print and executed solely as a print, usually in a numbered edition, and signed.
• What style or movement did Barbara McGivern belong to?+

  It is difficult to assign Barbara McGivern to a single style or movement, as the provided texts do not contain information about her or her work. However, the texts do discuss general principles of art and style. Architecture and costume offer clear indications of the temper of an age. Styles can be limiting; a movement emerges when its development results in internal limits different from those of its predecessor. A style, once fully formed, remains constant, even if the works expressing that style change over time. One text mentions the influence of sportswear on tailored suits, reflecting a shift towards ease and comfort in clothing. This suggests a move away from rigid formality towards a more relaxed and body-conscious aesthetic, which could be relevant to understanding artistic trends in general.
• What techniques or materials did Barbara McGivern use?+

  Barbara McGivern's techniques include both pencil and acrylic methods. When using pencils, she employs hatching (parallel strokes for shading), crosshatching (layered strokes at angles for darker shading), applying heavy pressure for dark shading, and gradating (varying pressure for tonal range). She also blends with tools or tissues and creates textured shading using the pencil's side. McGivern establishes form by initially creating a line drawing to define an object's shape and adds value by observing how light creates highlights and shadows. McGivern also uses acrylic techniques, including flat washes (thin mixtures of paint diluted with water) applied in overlapping horizontal strokes. For her compositions, McGivern draws and redraws her subject, using notes and sketchbook work. She uses photographs, manipulating them to define the geometry in her composition. She often applies a layer of wax to the paper before defining the composition with sable brushes, creating a delicate surface. After adding another layer of wax, she mounts the paper onto thick card so she can work more freely with larger brushes and charcoal.
• Where can I see Barbara McGivern's work?+

  I am unable to provide a comprehensive list of exhibition locations for Barbara McGivern's work. However, I can offer some resources that may help you locate her pieces. By Western Hands (BWH) is a non-profit organisation in Cody, Wyoming, dedicated to preserving and promoting Western artisanal traditions. Their Design Centre features a gallery where creations by BWH Artists’ Guild members are sold. The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, has hosted juried exhibitions of new works by Maine artists. The Springfield Museum of Art in Ohio has also presented exhibitions celebrating female artists from their permanent collection. Checking the museum's website is recommended to see if McGivern's work is currently on display. Additionally, many museums have increased their online presence through social media or virtual exhibitions. It is best to check museum websites for hours, restrictions, and online content.
• Who did Barbara McGivern influence?+

  Rosalie Gascoigne influenced several emerging female artists. Imants Tillers began to include references to Gascoigne's art in 1996^[1]; his work explored place, locality, and evocations of the countryside. Gascoigne's art was included in the school arts curriculum and discussed in associated textbooks. She also received less welcome recognition from imitators who tried their hand at works 'influenced by' Gascoigne, using weathered wood and sawn-up road signs in constructions modelled on hers. Gascoigne was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1994 for her services to art. The media discovered she was good copy and a natural at the televised interview, notably the Film Australia interview with Robin Hughes broadcast in the Australian Biography series in 1998. The National Library of Australia recorded her thoughts for its oral history archive in 1995, and in 1998 Vici MacDonald’s monograph on Gascoigne, based on extensive interviews with her, was published.
• Who influenced Barbara McGivern?+

  Barbara McGivern's influences are not well documented in the provided texts, but the artist Anni Albers (born Annelise Else Frieda Fleischmann in 1899) offers a point of comparison. Albers attended the Bauhaus school at age twenty-three. There, she was taught by Paul Klee from 1922. Klee's philosophy was rooted in English and German Romanticism, Immanuel Kant, and German Idealism. He believed people are at their best when independent and that the visual world is just one of several realities. Klee aimed to create his own style devoid of preconceptions. Albers considered Klee a genius, especially for his ability to combine abstract and geometric elements with natural and organic ones. Albers combined hand-weaving with modern art ideas. Her work included wall coverings that were sound-absorbing and light-reflecting. She also became a printmaker later in life, blending screenprint with photo-offset and using etching processes.
• Who was Barbara McGivern?+

  Barbara Zeigler Sungur (active 1975^[1]-1986^[1]) is a Canadian^[1] artist known for her prints addressing ecological themes. Her work often critiques human ambition and its impact on the environment. Sungur's early prints, such as *By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them...* (1975), depict barren environments. She frequently used a high vantage point to survey the scene. In later works, she satirised human constructions and their effect on the natural world, as seen in *Sweet Misery* (1978). Around 1981, Sungur began the *Precarious Balances Print Series*, which included twelve prints and fifteen drawings. This series marked a shift in her technique; she incorporated photography, collage, and new printing methods like viscosity printing. These prints often combine man-made structures with natural forms, symbolising interference in the environment. After 1985, Sungur began to include human figures in her work, directly referencing the imbalance in human affairs. She employed contemporary technologies like Kodalith and Xerox, consistent with her interest in media used to disseminate pictorial information.
• Why are Barbara McGivern's works important today?+

  Barbara McGivern's works are important because they engage with questions of female identity, representation, and the construction of history. Like other artists, McGivern questions long-held societal values encoded in images and words. Her work can be viewed in the context of feminist art that emerged in the late 20th century. Artists like Judy Chicago sought to reclaim female agency and challenge patriarchal notions of artistic creation. Chicago's "Dinner Party" (1979^[1]), for example, aimed to document and honour women's participation in history, offering a direct challenge to male-dominated narratives. McGivern's art shares concerns with artists such as Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, who utilise language and images to question stereotypes and assumptions. These artists prompt viewers to think critically about the messages they consume and the ways in which women are represented in culture. While approaches to feminist art have changed over time, the foundations laid by earlier artists like Chicago continue to influence contemporary practice.
• When was Barbara McGivern born?+

  Barbara McGivern was born in 1957^[1].