Omega and After: Bloomsbury and the Decorative Arts

Isabelle Anscombe

ISBN 10: 0500273626 / ISBN 13: 9780500273623

Published by Thames and Hudson, 1989

About this Item

This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside.This book has soft covers. Book contains pencil markings. In fair condition, suitable as a study copy. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,600grams, ISBN:9780500273623.

Seller Inventory # 4839443

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Omega and After: Bloomsbury and the Decorative Arts
• Publisher: Thames and Hudson
• Publication Date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0500273626
• ISBN 13: 9780500273623
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Fair
• Weight: 600 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Art

About this title

Synopsis

While the literary output of members of the Bloomsbury Group has been thoroughly scrutinized, another aspect of their activity has been largely overlooked, that is, their designs for the decorative arts. The Omega Workshops, started in London in 1913 by Roger Fry, were a venture without precedent, aiming to produce decorative art from a background - not of crafts - but of painting. They boasted such talents as Vanessa Bell, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Duncan Grant and Wyndham Lewis. The Omega closed in 1919, but Bloomsbury decorative work did not cease. Vanessa Bell remained the central figure; settled into life at Charleston in Sussex, she and Duncan Grant continued to design objects and schemes, and her children later made their own contributions, Quentin as potter and Angelica as painter. Isabelle Anscombe's text, drawing on unpublished sources, catches the flavour of the time and its characters, from bohemians to haut monde. Howard Grey was allowed to print and reproduce early snapshot negatives, and his own photographs, begun before Duncan Grant's death, include unique records of Charleston still inhabited by one of its creators.

From the Back Cover

Draws on hitherto unpublished sources, aiming to convey the flavour of Bloomsbury and its characters, from bohemians to "haut monde". It examines their decorative art, produced from a background of painting rather than crafts, and features Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.