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Vanessa Bell to break free from Bloomsbury group in Dulwich show Vanessa Bell to break free from Bloomsbury group in Dulwich show
(about 11 hours later)
The first major solo exhibition presenting Vanessa Bell as a pioneering 20th-century artist rather than a player in the tangled affairs of the Bloomsbury group of writers and artists will be shown at the Dulwich picture gallery next year.The first major solo exhibition presenting Vanessa Bell as a pioneering 20th-century artist rather than a player in the tangled affairs of the Bloomsbury group of writers and artists will be shown at the Dulwich picture gallery next year.
“I think she might have been better off, even better known, if she hadn’t been part of the group,” said the exhibition curator, Sarah Milroy, of Bell, who was the sister of Virginia Woolf, the wife of the critic Clive Bell, and counted the painter Roger Fry and the artist Duncan Grant among her lovers. “Her talent stands up to any of them.”“I think she might have been better off, even better known, if she hadn’t been part of the group,” said the exhibition curator, Sarah Milroy, of Bell, who was the sister of Virginia Woolf, the wife of the critic Clive Bell, and counted the painter Roger Fry and the artist Duncan Grant among her lovers. “Her talent stands up to any of them.”
Milroy and her co-curator Ian Dejardin, the director at Dulwich, argue that lasting public fascination with the Bloomsbury group has overshadowed the serious talent of a pioneering modern British artist who exhibited at the second postimpressionist exhibition of 1912 in London alongside Picasso, Matisse and Gauguin.Milroy and her co-curator Ian Dejardin, the director at Dulwich, argue that lasting public fascination with the Bloomsbury group has overshadowed the serious talent of a pioneering modern British artist who exhibited at the second postimpressionist exhibition of 1912 in London alongside Picasso, Matisse and Gauguin.
The Dulwich exhibition will include loans from private owners in Europe and the US, including several never publicly exhibited, and other works from institutions including the Tate, the Metropolitan in New York, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Charleston Trust. The trust is based at the Sussex farmhouse that became Bell and Grant’s home. She was visited there most weekends by her husband and Charleston became a rural retreat for the wider Bloomsbury group.
She might have been better off, even better known, if she hadn't been part of the groupShe might have been better off, even better known, if she hadn't been part of the group
The Dulwich exhibition will include loans from private owners in Europe and the US, including several never publicly exhibited, and other works from institutions including the Tate, the Metropolitan in New York, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Charleston Trust. The trust is based at the Sussex farmhouse that became Bell and Grant’s home. She was visited there most weekends by her husband and Charleston became a rural retreat for the wider Bloomsbury group.
“[Bell’s] beauty was perhaps also a problem,” said Milroy, “because it was so much a part of how others saw her. We considered having a side chapel of portraits of her but decided against it because it played to the image of her as a muse rather than an artist in her own right. There will be no works by other artists in the show.”“[Bell’s] beauty was perhaps also a problem,” said Milroy, “because it was so much a part of how others saw her. We considered having a side chapel of portraits of her but decided against it because it played to the image of her as a muse rather than an artist in her own right. There will be no works by other artists in the show.”
But Bell cannot be freed entirely from the clutches of the Bloomsbury set, once described as “living in squares and loving in circles”. Their labyrinthine relationships were so tortuous that previous exhibitions about the group have included diagrams to make sense of it all.But Bell cannot be freed entirely from the clutches of the Bloomsbury set, once described as “living in squares and loving in circles”. Their labyrinthine relationships were so tortuous that previous exhibitions about the group have included diagrams to make sense of it all.
This show will include Bell’s portraits of many members of the group, including her weary sister Virginia slumped in a chair, the writer Lytton Strachey, and Angelica, her daughter with Duncan Grant.This show will include Bell’s portraits of many members of the group, including her weary sister Virginia slumped in a chair, the writer Lytton Strachey, and Angelica, her daughter with Duncan Grant.
Angelica grew up to marry the author David Garnett, a former lover of Grant’s, who had been present at her birth, admired her beauty and pledged to marry the baby.Angelica grew up to marry the author David Garnett, a former lover of Grant’s, who had been present at her birth, admired her beauty and pledged to marry the baby.
Bell’s fabric, furniture and ceramic designs for the famous Omega Workshop will also be shown: the farmhouse became a startling showhouse for the style, with painted decoration applied to every surface including the fireplaces and lampshades.Bell’s fabric, furniture and ceramic designs for the famous Omega Workshop will also be shown: the farmhouse became a startling showhouse for the style, with painted decoration applied to every surface including the fireplaces and lampshades.
Vanessa Bell is at the Dulwich picture gallery, London SE21 from 8 February 2017 to 4 June 2017Vanessa Bell is at the Dulwich picture gallery, London SE21 from 8 February 2017 to 4 June 2017