Barbara Rae Handwoven Wool & Cotton Tapestry Titled Olive Terraces, Zahara 2009

Privately commissioned directly from the artist this custom handwoven wool and cotton tapestry is titled Olive Terraces, Zahara, after Barbara Rae's painting by the same name. Woven Haute Lisse using a High Warp Loom at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh GB in 2009. The price new was over $30,000. Barbara's works continue to gain international recognition and are displayed in important collections worldwide.

Barbara Rae RSA CBE is one of the best known artists currently practicing in Scotland.

Born in Falkirk, Rae studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art (1961-1965). Travelling to France and Spain on a post-graduate scholarship, her early work drew upon trends of abstraction and mixed media practices in European art at the time. Since her first solo exhibition in Edinburgh in 1967, Rae has gone on to exhibit worldwide. In 1996 she was elected a member of the Royal Academy. She holds honorary doctorates from Napier University, Aberdeen University and the University of St Andrews, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College.

In 2018 the landmark exhibition Barbara Rae: The Northwest Passage was held at the Royal Scottish Academy. The exhibition charted Rae's expeditions to the Arctic Circle in the footsteps of her namesake, the explorer John Rae.

Rae’s work has been included in many solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Her first solo show was held in 1967 at the New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh. In 1994 and 1999, she won tapestry commissions for The Festival Theatre, Edinburgh and for the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, respectively (both carried out by the Edinburgh Tapestry Company). Rae’s work is included in many private collections in Britain, Europe and the USA, as well as in many public and corporate collections.

Among Rae’s many awards are Major Scottish Arts Council Awards (1975, 1981), Guthrie Medal, Royal Scottish Academy (1977), Royal Scottish Academy Sir William Gillies Travel Award (1983) Calouste Gulbenkian Printmaking Award (1983) and Hunting Group Prizewinner (1990). Rae was elected President of the Society of Scottish Artists in 1983. She was made a Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1992 (ARSA 1980) and a Royal Academician in 1996. She has been a Member of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland since 1995 and was a Member of the Board of the British School at Rome in 1998. In 1999 she was awarded a CBE and received an Honorary Doctorate from Napier University, Edinburgh.

Rae lives and works in Edinburgh.

SELECTED COLLECTIONS:
Aberdeen Art Gallery. Argyll Schools Collection. Birmingham City Art Gallery. British Museum, London. City Art Centre, Edinburgh. Contemporary Arts Society. Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Dundee Art Gallery. Edinburgh City Schools Collection. Edinburgh Festival Theatre. Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries. Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow. Isle of Man Arts Council. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museums, Glasgow. Lillie Art Gallery, Milngavie. Metropolitan Borough of Wigan Collection. MPerth Art Gallery and Museum. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. Museum of Art for Women, Washington DC, USA.