Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival examining the work of Vanessa Bell. The talk brought together Wendy Hitchmaugh, who had recently released a new biography of Bell focusing on her art as well as her life, and Kate Hessel, author of the successful "The Story of Art Without Men". The event was well chaired by Jon King, research fellow who also has a book on Bell due out in a couple of months. The all highlighted how radical Bell's art was and how she created spaces for people to gather and work together from the house whose garden we were sitting in to important art groups. They also looked at the barriers she faced to working and selling her paintings. Needless to say, if you know me, I bought the biography and got it signed.  

Lovely exhibition at Charleston in Lewes focusing on Vanessa Bell. As you know I’m a big Bloomsbury fan so I was so excited to see this show, which I’d not managed to get to when it was is Milton Keynes, and it didn’t disappoint. I loved that a lot of space was given to Bell’s earlier, groundbreaking work and that a big section looked at her design work. Most of the show was arranged by place, reflecting the importance of place to Bell, plus giving it a rough chronological structure. I liked the mixing of portraits and landscapes as places as are as much about the people in them as the space itself. I found lots of old friends but there was also a great selection of works from private collections and regional galleries. Closes 21 September 2025  

Excellent online lecture from ARTscapades looking at Vanessa Bell’s early Modernist works. I had assumed this would be a standard book talk as the speaker, Wendy Hitchmough, has recently written a biography of Bell but instead she decided to focus on Bell’s early Modernist works and to discuss how radical they were. This made it a lot more interesting and in depth that I had expected. She began by discussing how Bell encountered the Post-Impressionist via helping to organise the 1910 show of their work in London then looked at the effect this art had on her portraits, particularly of her sister, Virginia Woolf. She next focused on three major works “Studland Beach”, “Mother and Baby” (now lost)   and “Nursery Tea” all from 1912 talking about their radical composition and subject matter and how that was informed by Bell’s experience as a woman and mother. She concluded by talking about how Bell created spaces where women could meet and show art such as the Grafton Group and...

Disappointing exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of work by Vanessa Bell. I only say disappointing as I wanted more! As anyone who reads me will know I love the work of the Bloomsbury Group so of course I would want more than a small show could offer. The works were drawn from the gallery’s own collection mainly from the donations by Roger Fry and his daughter but it also included a work bought by Samuel Courtauld. There was a nice selection of still-lives and designs for rugs and a screen alongside her early cutting-edge work “The Conversation”. I loved this early still life of the view from Bell’s Paris studio. Closes 6 October 2024  

Intriguing online lecture from Fitzwilliam Museum looking at the still-lives of Vanessa Bell. Rebecca Birrell, Assistant Keeper of Paintings, Drawings and Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum and formerly of Charleston Farmhouse, compared Bell’s still-lives of flowers to those of the 17th century. She pointed out the latter were mainly about the fragility of life and were moralistic whereas Bell’s are about light, life and happiness. Birrell incorporated Bell’s sister Virginia Woolf’s writing on art to place Bell among the modernist artists and thinkers and to show the feminist position of a female artist who would now hold exhibitions and work as a professional artist. I loved the idea that the pictures of flower arranging could be seen as a portrait of the garden at Charleston and also as a diary. This made me think of the comparison with Virginia Woolf’s dairies where, as well as recording her life, she also seems to be trying out writing styles like a written sketch book.

Delightful  display at Charleston Farmhouse showing the lovely portrait of Virginian Woolf by her sister Vanessa Bell on loan from the National Portrait Gallery. I’m very fond of this picture and it was lovely to see it in a new setting. The loan is part of a series by the National Portrait Gallery called Coming Home which sees 50 portraits of iconic individuals from the national collection travelling to the towns and cities most closely associated with their subjects. What a lovely idea and I’ll certainly look out for more of these. It was particularly nice that this was painted in 1912 as Asheham just a few miles from Charleston while Virginia was living there. It’s a tender, domestic picture yet in a modernist style with blocks of colour in the background and the wonderful orange chair outlining the figure. I think it shows the affection of one sister to another although I’m not sure I normally picture Virginia knitting in my mind. Closing 19 January 2020

Delightful talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival given by Ali Smith.   As the first event of the festival Ali Smith had been commissioned to write a piece about the newly rediscovered dinner service decorated by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell for Kenneth Clarke. It was a stunning prose poem, appropriately a stream of consciousness on various topics suggested by the paints. It covered the artists, the women shown on the plates, various definitions of the word plate and plates in the works of Virginia Woolf and of the women shown.   It was delivered at a cracking, exciting pace bringing out the rhythm of the words. We just now need a published version so we can comb through the detail in it.   A great start to a fantastic 12 days of talks, ideas and good company. I can’t keep up with writing up all the events so I’ll concentrate on those to do with art and design.

Interesting evening at the Royal Institution organised by the Art Fund to launch an appeal to raise money to conserve the paintings by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant in Berwick Church. The evening consisted of Deborah Gage interviewing Julian Fellowes about his childhood in Sussex and what the art of the area meant to him. This was followed by a lovely presentation looking at how the pictures were commissioned and talking you through the iconography using quotes from letters and accompanied by lovely pieces sung by baritone, Michael Bunting. It brought the pictures to life but I felt was a bit heavy on the symbolism given that the artists were not religious.   This event had two added bonus’s, firstly that is was held in the iconic lecture theatre at the Royal Institution and secondly that there was a nice drinks reception afterwards and a chance to meet up with friends and fellow Bloomsbury nuts.  

Delightful exhibition at the Piano Nobile Gallery looking at the art and design of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. As any of you who read this know I am a huge Bloomsbury fan so needless to say I loved this show. The centre piece was the newly rediscovered Famous Women Dinner Service made for Kenneth Clark in the early 1930s. It was believed that this had been lost and Charleston Farmhouse is in the process of raising money to buy it to display in their new gallery. There are a few test pieces at Charleston which I had always felt looked a bit messy but the set looks much more impressive when seen together. I loved the eclectic mix of women represented from Pocahontas  to Greta Garbo. It was also lovely to see that plates of Vanessa and Duncan at the centre of it as a quirky signature. The plates were shown with some other lovely items including pieces from Charleston Farmhouse so it was like seeing old friends. There were also some pictures I’d not seen before and I l...

Fabulous exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery looking at the life and work of Vanessa Bell. It was so good to see Bell’s work in its own right rather than being shown as part of a group. I loved the fact the show looked at her design work as well as her paintings including a lovely case of her book covers for her sister Virginia Woolf’s books and material designs in different colour ways. There were lots of old friends here but also lots of work I’d never seen before. They had got some really good loans from American’s galleries and private collections and it was a real treat to see those works. I’d never seen the self-portrait which was used a s the poster before and I loved the way she paints her checked dress and the engaging expression which just makes you want to sit down and talk to her. Old favourites included “Iceland Poppies” which I’d never seen as a comment of opium before but now it’s obvious. I was very touched by her painting of a bunch of flowers and f...

Delightful exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery of photographs from Vanessa Bell’s photo albums alongside pictures by Patti Smith taken while working at Charleston and Monks House. It was a shame that the Bell pictures had to be reproductions as the originals were too delicate to display but a nice touch that there were mounted in the original albums.   The images were nicely picked to complement the Vanessa Bell exhibition. It was good to go round both before doing the main show to familiarise yourself with the people mentioned but then to go back later to see how the photos related to the art on show. I loved the Patti Smith images as I had seen her when she did her residence at Charleston   a few years ago. Hearing her sing a acoustic version of “Because the Night” there is one of my magic moments in life. I wasn’t so sure about the inclusion of her pictures on the lives of other artists. It would have been nice to keep it to a contemporary view of Bloomsbury....

Superb exhibition at the Brighton Royal Pavilion and Art Galleries of the early work of Duncan Bell and Vanessa Bell. It was full of old friends such as Duncan’s ‘The Bathers’ which hit you afresh as you walked in. However there were also some super pictures which I had not seen before. Paintings were hung well together to create a dialogue, such as pictures by both artists of a camp site. I think this period saw the product of most of the artists’ best work so it was good to see a such a concentrated examination of it. There was a lovely video to go with the exhibition which just lasts about 6 minutes and comes at the end so it does not distract from the pictures. Reviews Times

Small exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse of works by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell which look at drawing the body. Most of the pictures are life studies of nudes. The notes covered not only how the pictures were done but also often who the models were and how the artists found them. It also included a few pictures by Vanessa of her children. This was the first exhibition of work drawn from thousands of sketches, sketchbooks and paintings that make up the Angelica Garnett Gift to Charleston and I look forward to many more exhibitions of this quality from the collection.

I am a Friend of Charleston, the house where the painters Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, the art wing of the Bloomsbury Group, lived in Sussex. In last years AGM we bought a tour of the house with Simon Watney, one of the leading writers on the Bloomsbury group whose most recent book is " Bloomsbury in Sussex ". It had taken a while to arrange but on Saturday four of us gathered for our tour. Although I know the house well already it was a real treat to go round with someone who had known the house when Duncan was still alive and had been instrumental in saving and conserving it. It was also good to focus on the paintings and decorative aspects of the house rather than the personalities. I had not known before how much of the decoration had been done quite soon after they moved in in 1916. It was good to have your eye drawn to paintings you might have missed on previous visits. While there we also took the opportunity to view the small temporary exhibition which was on in the...