At the end of the 1940s, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham travelled
to Switzerland, where she sourced inspiration from the dramatic structures and
movement of glaciers. Fascinated by the layered formations of ice, her work
began taking on a more abstract style, marking a significant shift in her
reputation and recognition as an artist.

Over the winter of 1956–57, Barns-Graham taught at Leeds
College of Art and in her spare time often explored the surrounding Yorkshire
landscape. The fences and field boundaries of the Yorkshire dales provided a
structural framework upon which Barns-Graham visualised her own abstract interpretation
of the local terrain. Darks bands of black and brown contrast against the snowy
white surfaces, while layered rectangular forms represent the undulations of
the land itself.

Barns-Graham’s growing popularity during this period was
recognised in 1957 when she was selected for the inaugural John Moores
Liverpool Exhibition. The exhibition aimed to showcase the best of contemporary
British art, indicating her growing recognition as an artist, amounted through
her abstraction.