A delightful gift book devoted to the art and design of Vanessa Bell, a central figure in the internationally popular Bloomsbury group.

The painter Vanessa Bell initiated a step change in modern British art, bringing the bright palette and bold stylization of the Parisian avant-garde to London. She was a central figure in the Bloomsbury group, alongside members of her family and close circle including Virginia Woolf, Clive Bell and Duncan Grant.

This book explores Bell’s radical approach to art and life through her paintings and designs for interiors, gardens, book jackets and more, bringing her work out of the shadow of her male contemporaries while celebrating her collaborative approach. Illustrated by over 100 striking images drawn from the V&A’s important collection of her work, this engaging overview also considers Bell’s unique, artisanal designs for the Omega Workshops and for Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex, her family residence, foregrounding the home as a crucial site of modernity.

'A slim, square tile of a volume perfect for summer reading… Delving into this condensed guide to [Vanessa Bell’s] radical work and life is essential for anyone who, as author Rosalind McKever writes, shares Bell’s belief in ‘the central tenet of modernism: to blend art and life' - Hyperallergic
'Attractively produced with fine illustrations drawn for the most part from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London' - The Burlington Magazine

Rosalind McKever is Curator of Paintings and Drawings at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She has curated exhibitions at the V&A and the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Sao Paulo, and has held fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the National Gallery, London.