WENDY HITCHMOUGH

One of Britain s most radical and influential artists working in the first decades of the twentieth century Vanessa Bell was a pioneer for professional women Vanessa Bell was a leading figure within the Bloomsbury Group and known for her unconventional lifestyle but her work as a painter designer and decorator has often been overlooked and relegated within the bombastic male dominated field of British modernism With new research including previously unpublished letters Wendy Hitchmough explores the ways in which Bell 1879 1961 forged new pathways as a modernist woman Writing openly about depression and mental health at a time when the subject was stigmatised as well as challenging taboos surrounding women s bodies Bell exploited the patriarchal society that oppressed her She responded to the nudes and pastoral scenes of Cezanne Gauguin Picasso and Matisse with themes of miscarriage and motherhood She exhibited with her partner Duncan Grant and comparisons between their parallel careers highlight the gender disparities that shaped her life and work Vanessa Bell The Life and Art of a Bloomsbury Radical celebrates the artist s trailblazing approach to art as well as life her rejection of conventions and the challenge she posed to the structures of