Exhibition 'Vanessa Bell (1879-1961)' in Dulwich Picture Gallery
Widely acclaimed as a central figure of the Bloomsbury Group, the modernist painter, Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) also stands on her own as 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 been habitually overshadowed by the complexity of her family life and romantic entanglements. In the first major exhibition of the her work, Bell will be presented for fresh consideration, delivered in full force, boldly experimenting with abstraction, colour and form. 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.
