Glenys Barton Angela Flowers, 2005

Born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1944, Glenys Barton studied at the Royal College of Art, becoming one of the few sculptors working in ceramic in the 1970s. Precise geometrical forms and refined minimal lines defined her early practice, which has now become far more figurative, with subjects often family and friends.

The 2005 portrait of Angela Flowers marks the long friendship between the artist and the late gallerist, which commenced when Barton first joined the Flowers Gallery in 1974. Prior to this, in 1972, she was invited to serve on the newly formed Crafts Advisory Committee, as its youngest member. Following this Barton became the first artist-in-residence at the Wedgwood factory in Stoke-on-Trent from 1976 to 1978, and has since had numerous exhibitions, most notably at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 1997, and the Manchester City Art Gallery in the same year.

Barton's long career has featured further notable portrait commissions, including those of Jean Muir, Glenda Jackson, and Dame Joan Bakewell, all of which are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Her work is held in public collections including the Arkansas Arts Centre, USA, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Manchester Art Gallery, Museum Van Boijmans Beuninge, Rotterdam, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, the Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, the Princesshoff Museum of Ceramics, Leeuwarde, Holland, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, the Stockholm City Museum, Stockholm, the British Museum, London, the Hepworth-Wakefield, Wakefield, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.