From Omega to Charleston: The Art of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant 1910- 1934 - Hardcover

Shone, Richard; Leaper, Hana; Spalding, Frances; Clarke, Darren

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1901192512 ISBN 13: 9781901192513

Publisher: Piano Nobile, 2018

Synopsis

First published to accompany the exhibition From Omega to Charleston: The Art of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, 1910-1934, this fully illustrated publication explores the life and works of two of the most innovative and influential British artists of the twentieth century. With a substantial essay and catalogue entries by Richard Shone (author of Bloomsbury Portraits, 1993 and curator of The Art of Bloomsbury, Tate, 1999), the catalogue explores the unique creative relationship shared by Bell (1879-1961) and Grant (1885-1978). It traces their move from the early years flush with post-impressionist experimentation to their later work at Charleston, their shared Sussex home. Whether working in fine painting or decorative schemes, together they emerge as consistently radical practitioners at the very heart of their cultural milieu.

Drawing from private collections and a substantial group of works from The Charleston Trust, the second half of the publication focusses exclusively on one of Bell and Grant’s most spectacular joint commissions: The Famous Women Dinner Service. Begun in 1932 at the request of the art historian and director of the National Gallery Kenneth Clark and his wife Jane, its fifty plates were decorated with images of famous women through the ages, from Sappho to Greta Garbo. Considered lost for nearly forty years, and first publically exhibited at this exhibition, this set of plates forms an impressive testament to Bell and Grant’s close working partnership. A significant essay by Hana leaper (Charleston scholar, Fellow of the Paul Mellon Centre, and Senior Lecturer, Liverpool John Moores University) is succeeded by closer scholarship dedicated to the individual plates and the women that inspired them.

The catalogue also has introductions from both Frances Spalding (Biographer of Bell and Grant) and Darren Clarke (Rausing Head of Collections, Research and Exhibitions at the Charleston Trust).

About this title

About the Author

Richard Shone is a leading specialist in early twentieth-century British art. He is the author of monographs on Sickert (1988) and the British-born Impressionist Alfred Sisley (1992) and the first book on the Bloomsbury painters (1976). He has curated exhibitions about Duncan Grant, portraits by Sickert (Bath, 1990) and the art of Bloomsbury (Tate, 1999). In 1992, he co-curated Sickert Paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts with Wendy Baron. He has written extensively on several of the Young British Artists and contributed to the exhibition catalogue of Sensation (1997). He was a regular contributor to The Burlington Magazine from the 1970s onwards and was its editor between 2003 and 2015.

Charleston scholar, Fellow of the Paul Mellon Centre, and Senior Lecturer, Liverpool John Moores University

Bloomsbury Scholar and Biographer of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant

Darren Clarke is the Head of Collections, Research and Exhibitions at The Charleston Trust.

Edition details

• Publisher: Piano Nobile
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1901192512
• ISBN 13: 9781901192513
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256