The Facts
Tate Britain will present 'Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury', the first major exhibition to chart the five-decade creative partnership between Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) and Duncan Grant (1885-1978), two influential British artists associated with the Bloomsbury Group. Featuring over 300 works, the show spans from early post-impressionist and abstract paintings to late naturalistic self-portraits, landscapes and still lifes, alongside furniture, ceramics and textiles. A highlight is a once-in-a-lifetime restaging of the artists' studio, relocated to Tate Britain from their East Sussex home, Charleston, while Charleston undergoes conservation work. The exhibition also includes rarely seen erotic male nudes by Grant, which remained hidden for many years, offering insight into his life as a gay man.
The Signal
The exhibition traces Bell and Grant's relationship from their first meeting in 1906 through their shared home for over 50 years. It examines their radical experimentation with bold colour and simplified forms, influenced by Roger Fry's 1910 'Manet and the Post-Impressionists' exhibition, and their role in producing some of the earliest abstract works in Britain. Central to the show is their work at the Omega Workshops, a design enterprise that blurred fine and decorative art, and commissions such as the 'Famous Women Dinner Service' (1932-34), 50 hand-painted Wedgwood plates. The exhibition is curated by Thomas Kennedy and Eliza Spindel at Tate Britain, supported by Kim Jones, Vice President of the Charleston Trust, and Farrow & Ball.
- Artists: Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant
- People: Thomas Kennedy, Eliza Spindel, Kim Jones, Roger Fry, Virginia Woolf, Clive Bell, John Singer Sargent
- Museums: Tate Britain, Charleston
- Locations: London, East Sussex
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