In September 2011, Radical Bloomsbury—an exhibition curated by David Alan Mellor—opened at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. Professor Mellor escorted Sussex’s intake of new Art History students on a tour of the exhibition during their first week at the University.
The Bloomsbury artists have long been associated with Sussex through their Charleston home. The unconventional household established by the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant was often depicted in their paintings, and Charleston itself is a distillation of what has come to be known as the ‘Bloomsbury style’.
The exhibition looked at the contribution of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant to the development of 20th-century British painting, exploring the relationship between the Bloomsbury artists and avant-garde art from 1905 to 1925. It showed how the Bloomsbury painters looked at new developments in European art, and how important their role was in modernising British art. The exhibition focused on painting, but also included painted room panels and screens and some textiles.
Loans included pictures from national and regional galleries throughout England and from private collectors, including some works that have rarely been seen in public before.
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
