The Art of Bloomsbury: Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, and Duncan Grant - Softcover

Shone, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691095140 ISBN 13: 9780691095141

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2002

Synopsis

The word Bloomsbury most often summons the novels of Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster or images of artists and intellectuals debating the hot parlor topics of 1910s and 1920s London: literary aesthetics, agnosticism, defining truth and goodness, and the ideas of Bertrand Russell, A. N. Whitehead, and G. E. Moore. But the Bloomsbury Group also played a prominent role in the development of modernist painting in Britain. The work of artists Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Roger Fry, and their colleagues was often audacious and experimental, and proved to be one of the key influences on twentieth-century British art and design.

This catalogue, published to accompany a major international exhibition of the Bloomsbury painters originating at the Tate Gallery in London and traveling to the Yale Center for British Art and the Huntington Art Gallery, provides a new look at the visual side of a movement that is more generally known for its literary production. It traces the artists' development over several decades and assesses their contribution to modernism. Catalogue entries on two hundred works, all illustrated in color, bring out the chief characteristics of Bloomsbury painting--domestic, contemplative, sensuous, and essentially pacific. These are seen in landscapes, portraits, and still lifes set in London, Sussex, and the South of France, as well as in the abstract painting and applied art that placed these artists at the forefront of the avant-garde before the First World War. Portraits of family and friends--from Virginia Woolf and Maynard Keynes to Aldous Huxley and Edith Sitwell--highlight the cultural and social setting of the group. Essays by leading scholars provide further insights into the works and the changing critical reaction to them, exploring friendships and relationships both within and outside of Bloomsbury, as well as the movement's wider social, economic, and political background.

With beautiful illustrations and a highly accessible text, this catalogue represents a unique look at this fascinating artistic enclave. In addition to the editor, the contributors are James Beechey and Richard Morphet.

Exhibition Schedule:
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The Tate Gallery, London

November 4, 1999-January 30, 2000

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

San Marino, California

The Yale Center for British Art

New Haven, Connecticut
May 20-September 2, 2000

About this title

About the Author:

Richard Shone is an Associate Editor of The Burlington Magazine, and a well-known writer on nineteenth- and twentieth-century art. His books include Bloomsbury Portraits, Alfred Sisley, and Walter Sickert. He has also written extensively on contemporary British artists such as Fiona Rae, Rachel Whiteread, and Damien Hirst.

Review:

"Though much has been written about various aspects of the Bloomsbury group, this book provides an important reassessment of their connection to the visual arts. . . . The copious illustrations, most in color, are splendid, and everything is thoroughly documented." (Choice)

"A catalog of beautiful color illustrations of all art objects in the exhibition is divided up chronologically and thematically, with each section accompanied by a short introductory essay. Highly recommended for all art libraries and academic libraries supporting programs in the arts." (Library Journal)

"A magnificent new book. . . . [A] powerful combination of words and images."---John Murray, The Bloomsbury Review

"The lavishly illustrated catalogue for The Art of Bloomsbury . . . offers detailed and knowledgeable exegeses of works on show, convincingly correcting earlier errors in dating and titling and establishing it as the definitive text in the field."---Christopher Reid, CAA. Reviews

"[An] excellent catalogue. . . . Richard Shone and his contributing writers explain the ways in which the art that came out of the Bloomsbury circle. . . .introduced a dazzling new formal vocabulary to British art."---Regina Marler, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Lucid essays illuminate the essence of Bloomsbury's three best painters. . . . The book's vibrant reproductions reveal the trio's shared devotion to rich color, strong pattern, and the sensuous joys of the physical world." (Elle)

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0691095140
• ISBN 13: 9780691095141
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288