Dulwich picture Gallery has announced the first major monographic exhibition of the work of Vanessa Bell, opening 8 February 2017.

Widely acclaimed as a central figure of the Bloomsbury Group, Bell also stands on her own as a pivotal player in 20th century British art, inventing a new language of visual expression forged from British and continental influences.

Arranged thematically, the exhibition will reveal Bell’s pioneering work in the genres of portraiture, still life and landscape and will explore her fluid movement between the fine and applied arts, focusing attention on her most distinctive period of experimentation in the 1910s. Approximately 100 oil paintings as well as ceramics, fabrics, works on paper, photographs and related archival material will deliver Bell in full force, boldly experimenting with abstraction, colour and form while remaining true to her own distinctive way of seeing the world.

"I am honoured to work on this exhibition of an artist who has been so unaccountably overlooked. Unconventional in her approach to both art and life, Bell's art embodies many of the progressive ideas that we still are grappling with today, expressing new ideas about gender roles, sexuality, personal freedom, social and class mores and the open embrace of non-British cultures."
- Co-curator, Sarah Milroy

Bell’s artistic development was rich and wide-ranging. She studied under varied teachers, including Arthur Cope, Henry Tonks and John Singer Sargent. Her reputation as an artist, however, has been habitually overshadowed by the complexity of her family life and romantic entanglements. She is often seen in a supporting role to her sister, Virginia Woolf, and as muse and confidante to her lovers, friends and fellow artists such as Roger Fry and Duncan Grant.

This exhibition will present Bell for fresh consideration on her own, charting her move from the refined Impressionism of her early training to a more radical, experimental style stimulated by her many visits to Paris and by the post-Impressionist exhibitions held in London in 1910 and 1912.

Vanessa Bell runs from 8 February until 4 June 2017. It is curated by Sarah Milroy, a writer and curator based in Toronto, and Ian Dejardin, The Sackler Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery. It will be accompanied by a major new catalogue and a programme of talks and events at the Gallery.

For full details and to purchase tickets visit the website: www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Image below: Vanessa Bell, Self - Portrait, ca. 1915, oil on canvas laid on panel, Yale Center for British Art.