The Brighton Museum & Art Gallery Shows the Art of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell

Written by Marianne Morrison Tuesday, 29 November 2011 22:11

Brighton, England.- The Brighton Museum and Art Gallery in the Royal Pavillion is pleased to present "Radical Bloomsbury: The Art of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell 1905-25" until October 9th. "Radical Bloomsbury" establishes a new understanding of the pictorial imagination of Bloomsbury by re-evaluating the unique painting partnership of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, exploring their relationship with avant-garde art from 1905 to 1925. It demonstrates how these Bloomsbury painters were among the earliest British artists to look at new developments in European art, such as French Post-Impressionist practices, and the importance of their role in modernising British art.

Grant was one of very few British artists who knew Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse in their early days, and Vanessa Bell was an international pioneer of abstract painting. Approximately 80 works (paintings and drawings) are on show; and the exhibition gathers together key paintings by Grant and Bell which embody the new social, emotional and sexual attitudes of what became known as the Bloomsbury Group. These correspond to the ground-breaking writings of Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster and Lytton Strachey.  "Radical Bloomsbury" provides the cultural and social context within which Grant and Bell worked. For example, Grant spent almost the first ten years of his life in India and Burma; and this backdrop of a still Imperial world will be explored, through photographs and watercolours of Indian scenes by other European artists.

The exhibition is split between six sections, the first, 'Bloomsbury before Bloomsbury' explores Grant and Bell’s familiarity with recent pictorial traditions and possibilities, such as French intimiste painting. 'The Exotic, the Oriental and the Ornamental' explores the artists fascination with the these themes (Grant was, along with Virginia Woolf and others, one of the fake "Abyssinian Princes" who embarassed the Royal Navy with the "Dreadnaught Hoax"). 'The Encounter with Modernism' shows how Grant and Bell negotiated the changes made by modernist artists in Paris, particularly Matisse and Picasso. 'An English Expressionism' looks at the burgeoning interest in tribal art and the growing influence of Picasso. 'Collage and Abstract Adventures' includes Grant's abstract paintings and multi-media approach (including "Kinetic Painting with Sound") demonstrating the interest in the linear and graphic language of Cubism and the experiments of the Duchamp-Villon brothers. The final section, 'Homes and Carnivals' looks at the artists works of the 1920s, frequently taking Picasso's stylistic innovations and giving them a comic twist. Radical Bloomsbury is curated by David Alan Mellor, Professor of Art History at the University of Sussex, with Darren Clarke as assistant curator. Loans include major works from Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Courtauld Gallery, regional galleries throughout England and private collectors, including paintings that have rarely been seen in public before.


Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is a beautiful 19th century listed building set in the heart of the city’s cultural quarter. The building was originally King George IV’s magnificent stable complex and now includes the Brighton Dome concert hall. The museum houses one of the most important and eclectic collections outside national institutions. Brighton Museum was founded by local brewer and social reformer Henry Willett. Following a £10 million redevelopment, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery reopened in May 2002 with a complete redisplay of its rich and diverse collections. Dynamic and innovative new galleries provide greatly improved access to the museum’s nationally and locally important collections.   Objects are displayed in stimulating contexts with a wide range of interpretative techniques including the latest interactive information technology. The World Art collection is one of the finest in the country with artefacts dating back two millennia. The Fine Art collection contains some 2,000 paintings, almost as many as the National Gallery. The Fashion gallery celebrates centuries of style from Regency to Biba. Images of Brighton and Exploring Brighton galleries present both the traditional and unconventional aspects of the city’s rich and colourful history through audio, film, artefacts, local ephemera and imagery. Performance takes an indulgent look at performance from all over the world and Body explores how cultures have defined and redefined their bodies through the centuries. Brighton History Centre is a focal point for the museum’s complete catalogue of collections. Located on the upper floor of the museum, there are many resources and research materials available for exploring and researching local and family history. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/Museums/brightonmuseum

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