This book, and the exhibition it accompanies, presents the largest ever survey of work by Vanessa Bell (1879-1961). Described as ''the most important woman painter in Europe'', Bell was a pioneering modernist painter and founding member of the Bloomsbury Group, a circle of influential English artists, writers and intellectuals in the first half of the twentieth century.This publication traces Bell''s explorations into the Italian Renaissance, her encounters with the European avant-garde, including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, and her leading role in social and cultural activities such as the Friday Club, a group of artists founded in 1905, as well as the design enterprise, Omega Workshops. It also looks at the key contributions Bell made towards the development of abstract art, creating what friend and art critic Roger Fry described as ''visual music''. Collaborations formed an essential part of Bell''s approach to art, including with her sister, the writer Virginia Woolf, and the artist Duncan Grant, with whom Vanessa Bell''s all-encompassing approach to art found its ultimate expression in Charleston, the farmhouse they shared in East Sussex.Through over 130 works of art produced across her entire career, this book examines the development of Bell''s landscapes, still lifes and portraits alongside her wider approach to creativity, through design, furniture, ceramics and drawings.>

Vorwort
The largest ever illustrated survey of work by Vanessa Bell (1879-1961), one of the founding members of the Bloomsbury Group

Autorentext
Fay Blanchard is Head of Exhibitions at MK Gallery. Prior to joining the gallery she worked as Visual Arts Curator with the British Council. She has produced publications on contemporary British sculpture and artists including Paula Rego, Laura Knight and Boyd & Evans. Anthony Spira is Director of MK Gallery, having been curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, London and the Jeu de Paume, Paris. He has produced many publications on artists including Ellen Altfest, Hans Bellmer, Peter Dreher, Ingrid Pollard and George Stubbs.Rebecca Birrell grew up in Southport, and lives in Cambridge. She studied English Literature at UCL, followed by Women's Studies at the University of Oxford. She has occupied curatorial positions at the Jewish Museum London, the Department of Prints and Drawing at the British Museum and at the Charleston Trust. In 2018 she undertook a fellowship at the Yale Centre for British Art. She completed her PhD at the Edinburgh College of Art. She is a curator in the Department of Paintings, Drawings and Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.

Inhalt
Introduction - Anthony Spira & Nathaniel Hepburn

Chronology

An Emotion, A Puzzle - Rebecca Birrell

Catalogue of Works

A Modernist Approach - Paulina Olowska
A Vivid Occupation - Hayley Tompkins
Famous Women - Judy Chicago
Personal Reflections - The Singh Twins

Notes
Bibliography
Image Credits
Index of Works
Acknowledgements