(Cats in graveyard)

Barbara Olmsted

A surreal and humorous depiction of cats playing and lounging in a graveyard, translucent pathways that seem to emerge from the ground and continue skyward suggesting the cats’ existence between the living and the dead. This appears to have been a preparatory sketch for a print that never materialized. Barbara Olmsted’s blue ink signature in the lower left signifies that the drawing itself was later approved by her as a stand-alone work.

Olmsted’s 1930s work reflects the changing tides of modern art in the early half of the 20th century. The bulk of her oeuvre was rooted in surrealism and evolved into non representational abstract expressionism. One hallmark of this path is her use of automatic line, attributed in some respects to Atelier 17 founder Stanley William Hayter, under whom she studied during the workshop’s original iteration in Paris. At work in this piece is the influence of both genres and the stylistic changes emerging in the experimental art world.

Despite working in engraving, etching, and lithography for several years, her prints are quite rare. Olmsted was an active member of the San Francisco Art Association and her prints were included in the Annual Exhibition of Drawings and Prints in 1938, 1941, 1942, and 1943 held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 1938, her etching Le Sacre sans Merci was awarded a prize for etching. Olmsted's lithograph Memory of the Dark illustrated the cover for the 1942 catalog and was awarded the San Francisco Art Association Purchase Prize. Her 1937 engraving and softground etching Le Negre et les Arbres was included in the important 1944 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Hayter and Studio 17, which featured sixty prints by thirty-two artists from twelve nations. Olmsted's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art.

After divorcing Fred Olmsted in 1944, Barbara married Winston Petty in 1945. They operated a walnut orchard and a landscaping business in Danville, California. In 1954, they moved to a seventy-acre farm near Mt. Angel, Oregon to continue organic farming. After her divorce from Winston, Barbara relocated to Silverton, Oregon in 1959 where she married Al Phillips and began a long and successful career in real estate. She was a member of the Oregon State Grange, Redland Chapter, for over fifty years.

The highlight of her music career was to play piano with president Harry Truman. Family and friends feted her for her 98th birthday and Barbara passed away peacefully at home two weeks later on May 21, 2013.