2017: Vanessa Bell
8 February - 4 June 2017
- Time Out
- "Dazzling" - The Times
- Culture Whisper
Widely acclaimed as a central figure of the Bloomsbury Group, the modernist painter, Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) was a pivotal player in 20th-century British art, inventing a new language of visual expression.
Muse to fellow artists such as Roger Fry, sister of Virginia Woolf, mastermind of the idyllic Bloomsbury life at Charleston – Bell’s reputation as an artist has long been overshadowed by her family life and romantic entanglements. A radical innovator in the use of abstraction, colour and form, Bell will be presented for fresh consideration in this, the first major exhibition of her work. Approximately 100 paintings, ceramics, fabrics and photographs arranged thematically will reveal her pioneering work in the genres of portraiture, still life and landscape and will explore her fluid movement between the fine and applied arts, focusing on her most distinctive period of experimentation in the 1910s.
Who was Vanessa Bell?
Vanessa Bell was born in London in 1879. The eldest of four children and sister to renowned writer Virginia Woolf, she was encouraged from a young age to pursue her individual talents. In 1901 she began studying at the Royal Academy Schools, under the tutelage of John Singer Sargent, amongst others.
Following the death of her parents, Vanessa and her siblings moved from their family home to Bloomsbury, where regular meetings with other artists and intellectuals lead to the formation of The Bloomsbury Group. In 1907, she married fellow Bloomsbury member Clive Bell, with whom she had two children.
In 1912, alongside such notable names as Picasso and Matisse, Bell exhibited her work in the influential Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition at the Grafton Galleries, London, a landmark show organised by Roger Fry. Alongside Fry, Bell and Duncan Grant co-founded The Omega Workshop, an artists’ co-operative for decorative arts that operated between 1913 and 1919. Bell had her first solo exhibition at the Omega Workshops in 1916, and another at London’s Independent Gallery in 1922. She exhibited her work internationally in exhibitions in Paris, Zurich and Venice.
Legacy: Photographs by Vanessa Bell & Patti Smith
8 Feb - 4 June
Throughout Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) we are also hosting a special display bringing together photographs by Bell and the American artist, writer and musician, Patti Smith (b. 1946). Learn more here →
