'From Omega to Charleston' at Piano Nobile, Holland Park

'From Omega to Charleston' is a small exhibition of the works of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant between 1910 - 1934 in Piano Nobile, a small gallery in Holland Park. It's one of those places where you have to ring the door bell to be let in since it's really a small shop converted into a gallery than anything else but it was nicely laid out, even showing paintings around the office desks downstairs.

One of the main pieces on display is a set of 50 plates commissioned by Kenneth Clark that haven't been publicly displayed together forever. The plates show paintings of 48 'famous women' through the ages including the Queen of Sheba, Elizabeth Tudor, Greta Garbo, Virginia Woolf and, of course Vanessa and Duncan (so, technically, 49 famous women).

The works on show are mainly paintings but there's also a lovely painted cabinet and some vases that are worth scrutiny (I'd happily have that cabinet in my living room). There was a lovely self-portrait of Duncan Grant in pencil and a simple painting of his lover, 'David Garnett in Profile' - the lips are very voluptuous.

My favourite paintings were by Duncan Grant. I really like the way he uses colour such as in this painting of Lytton Strachey (with the inevitable book and beard of course). This reproduction doesn't really give a very good idea of the richness and warmth of the colours, the elegance of the crossed leg and foreshortened thigh and the creases and stretches in his jacket.

It doesn't look like he took a lot of time with this portrait with very vigorous  brush strokes pulling an image of Lytton out of the background. The hat is floating somewhere on the top of his head a precise alignment doesn't really matter. And the feet are missing, something I'm all too familiar with from my own drawings, but that doesn't matter.

Another painting I fell in love with at first glance was 'The Juggler and Tightrope Walker' and that's exactly what you get in the painting. Again, the colours in this reproduction don't do it justice but it is a lovely painting.

 It's a small but really good exhibition and it made me realise while I was there that I need to know more about Duncan Grant. I keep seeing examples of his work in various exhibitions but I've never really investigated him properly. Maybe it's time for a proper retrospective at Tate Britain?

'Sussex Modernism' at Two Temple Place

There's an interesting small exhibition on at the moment at Two Temple Place called 'Sussex Modernism: Retreat and Rebellion'. Two Temple Place is a Victorian mansion built by the Astor's and the inside is covered in carved wood decorations and some huge and detailed stained glass windows. It's a good place to host an exhibition like this, comparing the old and the new.

There's a wide range of artists in the show, many of whom I'd not heard of before, and a wide range of works - sculptures, paintings, sketches, furnishings, books and even two engraved garden rollers. It's split over two floors which helps with seeing the rest of the house. At one end of the large downstairs room is a 'Bloomsbury' section with paintings and furnishings from Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.

One of the highlights of the exhibition is a gorgeous painting by Duncan Grant, 'Venus and Adonis'. We see a pink, voluptuous Venus lounging on her bed looking out the window at a smaller Adonis running in the distance. The colours are marvellous (much better in real life than this reproduction) and it simply glows with life. The curves, the swag of the curtain, the fluffy clouds and the pink on pink of Venus on her red/orange bed all pulls you into a comfortable world and then you wonder why Adonis is running?

Further on from this painting is the much larger 'Bathers by the Pond' by Duncan Grant using a very different colour palette. It's a series of young men lounging around on a warm, sunny afternoon, some naked and some in colourful trunks (I couldn't help but wonder where you could get bright orange trunks these days). It's a very different painting and not as lush as 'Venus' but is quite arresting with it's large bush dabs to give a texture to the surface of the painting.

Another delightful work by Duncan Grant is a wooden chest he painted at Charleston with all four sides painted and the inside of the lid painted with the tale of 'Leda and the Duck', changing the swan to a duck. The front of the chest is painted with a joyous image of naked swimmer, with other scenes on the other sides of the chest.

There are also works by Vanessa Bell including book covers and a lampshade, but the most surprising were in the upstairs room and were two large sketches for decorating Berwick Church of 'The Nativity' and 'The Annunciation'. I hadn't expected to see religious paintings but these were delightful and hung opposite each other in an airy, light alcove that made them seem even lighter and more delicate and very early Renaissance. The sketch for 'The Nativity' compared to the finished painting in the church (below) is quite noticeable, particularly with the shepherd on the left wearing a jacket - which he doesn't have in the sketch - over his red jumper.

There are lots of other artists and crafts people included in this exhibition, include Salvador Dali's 'Mae West Lips' sofa on loan from Brighton Museum, a Henry Moore sculpture and paintings by Wadsworth (a detail of one is used on the poster above).

There's also a rather lovely 'Madonna and Child in a Landscape' by David Jones, one of the many artists I haven't come across before. I liked the muted colours and I liked the Madonna kissing her child while holding him protectively. It's a relatively small painting and is one of the few images that you can buy as a postcard in the shop. I'd like to see more of his work.

Two Temple Place was a new space for me and it's only open when there's an exhibition on. It's free to enter and have a look around so if you're in the area (it's just along from Temple tube station) then it's definitely worth popping in.

Vanessa Bell at Dulwich Picture Gallery

There's a new retrospective of the work of Vanessa Bell at  Dulwich Picture Gallery which is well worth a visit. Vanessa holds a possibly odd place in the hierarchy of 20th Century British art and I don't have any feeling for how well known she is - or I didn't until I attended on Saturday afternoon and it was incredibly busy. She's the sister of Virginia Woolf and is at the centre of the Bloomsbury group, the creator of Charleston house which was often the country refuge for the Bloomsberries. So she's there at the heart of this early 20th Century coterie of artists and thinkers but is she known in her own right? If not, she deserves to be after this excellent exhibition.

The exhibition is made up largely of paintings but there are also examples of her photographs, her book covers for her sister's books (I was pleased that they were displayed as books and not simply as framed designs), examples of her textile designs for the Omega Workshop printed on linen, an example of her ceramics, a painted screen along with other designs for screens. There's something here for everyone.

Vanessa is, of course, the poster girl for the exhibition, with her self-portrait from 1915 on the posters and front of the catalogue. It hangs in the first room beside a portrait of her sister, Virginia, from 1912. It's nice that they were hung together. 

It's thinly painted and, presumably, done quite quickly. She did several paintings of Virginia, some with the face obscured or not showing, presumably to emphasise that Virginia's work was about the inner life, not the external. But I like this portrait, a young Virginia who has yet to hit her stride as a writer, still finding her own style and her own reasons to write.  I think that's almost caught in her eyes, heavy lidded and thoughtful, her body almost blending with the background, just the hair, the eyes and the slightly parted lips standing out.

Vanessa did lots of portraits of the Bloomsbury group, of family and friends, but what I didn't realise was that she did lots of landscapes throughout her life. There's a room dedicated to her landscapes, vast vistas of rolling hills or glimpses through a window and I loved the colours in them, very expressive and bold. One of my favourites was 'View of the Pond at Charleston', her home down in Surrey. The colours are lovely and warm, welcoming, as we see the pond in the garden through a window with a vase on the window sill. It's very comforting and welcoming, guaranteeing a pleasant stay at Charleston when you need it most. I like the curtain and the objects on the window sill, an interior looking out.

Another interior was 'The Other Room', the largest painting in the exhibition. We see a room with a vase of flowers just off centre, and then notice the three women all engaged in their own business, not talking or interacting. The blocks of colour and the swag of the curtain and pattern of the green arm chair. One woman looking down, one seemingly reading and one looking out into the garden - what is she looking at? The day is warm and still, so what's going on in that room? Have the women had an argument? I don't think so otherwise there would be signs of turbulence. They're in their own worlds and perfectly comfortable there.

Another 'interior' painting that caught my eye was actually called 'Interior With The Artis'ts Daughter', Angelica Bell, from about 1935. This is more thickly painted and a more detailed painting, with rows of books behind Angelica sitting in the arm chair in the distance. The foreground is taken up with a table with a vase, scissors and thread and a pamphlet and we look through a doorway to the library. I like the detail of the book shelves, of the rug and the table cloth and the other vase of flowers beside the arm chair. Vanessa seemed to like vases of flowers and they feature in many paintings, from these 'interiors' to still lives. Are we suppose to admire the decorative inside of Charleston in this painting or is there a message about the young lady reading? Who knows?

The painting with the most people in it and most people interacting is 'Bathers' from 1911. Partially clothed, clothed and naked, this group of people on the beach makes for an intriguing painting - what's going on? The colours are warm and sunny and the figures seem to be mainly female but what do these groups say to us? There are very young girls, older, teenage girls, woman as mother and a woman naked as Venus, overlooking the scene. There is also a figure in the striped skirt with a parasol gazing out across the beech. What is going on? I don't know, but I stood and looked at this painting for a while, trying to puzzle it out, wondering what they might have been looking at and when it would be tea time.  

There's a lot to see and consider in this exhibition and I intend to go back to see it again during the week when I hope it will be less busy so I can wander and gaze in a more relaxed environment. One of the portraits I really liked was of 'Duncan Grant In Front Of A Mirror', in which Duncan is painted from behind with his face in a scrap of mirror with a cloth over his head. What an original way of doing a portrait.

Well done to Dulwich Picture Gallery for a great exhibition and for putting Vanessa Bell clearly on the map. I've seen various paintings by Vanessa over the years but have never been in a room surrounded by her work and knowing there are more rooms to come. I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition and fully recommend it. I'll be going back for seconds!

Virginia Woolf - Art, Life and Vision... Plus

There's an exhibition about Virginia Woolf at the National Portrait Gallery at the moment that illustrates her life through portraiture and her writing. It starts off with photographs of her parents and family, early photos from the late 1800s, and moves on to focus on Virginia and her friends. She was at the centre of the development of writing and the arts in the early part of the last century so her circle of family and friends covered some of the most important artists of the day from critics like Roger Fry to poets like TS Eliot to artists like her sister Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and they're all featured in the exhibition. Also featured, of course, is her husband, Leonard Woolf, who, amongst other things founded the Hogarth Press that published many of the more experimental pieces of writing of the time.

It's not a very large exhibition and many of the things on display are small so crowds tend to develop around the artefacts and paintings/photographs. It was nice that it was so busy on a random Thursday afternoon with a surprising number of older people intently looking at the exhibits. I don't think there's been an exhibition like this before - or at least in recent years - which might explain its popularity.

We see portrait photographs of the young Virginia Stephen, all posed as you'd expect of the late Victorians and photographs of Virginia throughout her life. Some are by friends at events of various types and others are by 'proper' photographers like Man Ray and Gisele Freund. I liked Gisele's photo of Virginia sitting on a big couch with her cocker spaniel Pinka at her feet. It's a rather domestic scene for someone with Virginia's intellectual reputation.

Two painted portraits are side by side in the exhibition from what looks like the same sitting, one by Roger Fry and the other by Vanessa Bell (Vanessa's is used in the poster for the exhibition). The earliest portrait is by Duncan Grant with Virginia Stephen apparently sitting and chatting to her sister wearing her big Edwardian hat - according to the label Virginia came into the room while he was painting, sat down in hat and coat and started talking to Vanessa so he started painting her. It's a nice tale of unthinking intimacy that something was so important that she just had to talk to Vanessa about it straight away.

There are also photos and paintings of family, friends and accomplices, of Leonard and Vanessa, of her brother Adrian and nephew Julian Bell who died in the Spanish Civil War. There are portraits of people like Vita Sackville-West and Hope Mirrlees (who looks like a young Felicity Kendal to me). There's a lovely painting of Vanessa by Duncan Grant and a self-portrait by Dora Carrington.

As well as paintings and photographs there are a lot of other exhibits in the form of first edition books hand-printed by the Hogarth Press (such as a first edition of TS Eliot's 'The Waste Land') and some of Virginia's books with covers designed by Vanessa. It's nice to be able to see these on display. There's also the bust of Virginia by Stephen Tomlin and a small painting ('Weeping Woman') that Picasso donated rather than attend a benefit arranged by the Bloomsbury people to raise money for families affected by the Spanish Civil War. The saddest exhibits were her farewell letters to Leonard and Vanessa, presented together in one frame. There are also some oddities like the 'black book' that listed all the people Hitler wanted to be arrested on sight following the German invasion of Britain that included Virginia and Leonard's names.

There's a rather touching painting by Vanessa from 1943 called 'The Memoir Club' which features a selection of the great and good sitting round chattering away about art, politics and people. On the wall, are portraits of lost friends and members of the club - Virginia Woolf (and it's nice that it's Duncan Grant's early portrait of the young Virginia), Lytton Strachey and Roger Fry. Gone but not forgotten and, with Virginia's literary legacy, never to be forgotten.

It's a very interesting and thought-provoking exhibition and well worth seeing.

Virginia Woolf also features in another exhibition in London at the moment, the Books About Town festival of painted benches dotted around London and 'Mrs Dalloway' is one of the featured books. The 'Mrs Dalloway' bench is in Gordon Square in Bloomsbury and features a painting of Clarissa on the front and Septimus on the back. And here they are:

Kenneth Clark - Looking for Civilisation at Tate Britain

A new exhibition based around the collection of Kenneth Clark has just opened at Tate Britain. Kenneth Clark is famous as a former director of the National Gallery during World Ward Two, for commissioning lots of art and for taking art to the masses through his TV series 'Civilisation' in 1969. I was a bit too young at the time to have good memories of the series but I remember him sauntering through empty galleries expounding on good art.

This exhibition is, basically, a collection of his stuff and stuff he commissioned, so here are lots of paintings, some from the renaissance but mainly from the 20th Century, statues, ceramics, a couple of painted screens and even a carpet by Duncan Grant. It's quite a big exhibition and the final room is a collection of small video screens with headphones so you can watch him on telly. In that respect it was enjoyable and unexpected since you have no idea what might be in the next room.

The first room contained two portraits of Kenneth as a young boy, instantly betraying his privileged upbringing and access to art and artists from a young age. The paintings are nice enough but nothing special. After some Japanese prints and some small renaissance paintings (including a lovely drawing of a naked man by Leonardo) I found the first thing that grabbed my attention - a small painting by Samuel Palmer that seemed to glow from within.

Palmer was a disciple of William Blake and pops up in exhibitions every now and then, either his drawings, prints or paintings and they are always a delight. As a commentator on the arts Clark, of course, had his own views on artists and art movements and these are sometimes included with the signing beside the art works. For this painting the comment is that Blake was a natural mystic who saw the mystical around him in everyday situations but Palmer internalised his mysticism. Fair enough, I suppose, I just like his art.

Another room was dedicated to early 20th Century art that he collected and two of the highlights for me were self portraits by Vanessa Bell and by Duncan Grant. Clark was a friend to the Bloomsbury people, especially Vanessa, and the caption beside the self-portrait noted that, when asked to do something he was unsure about he wondered 'What would Vanessa do?'. The self-portrait was painted in 1958 when Vanessa was in her late-60s and a few years before her death but it's lovely to look her in the eyes and wonder at her life and those around her. The colours are a lot richer than in this reproduction.

I think this room, with paintings by Vanessa, Duncan and Stanley Spencer ('White Lilacs') was the last one I actually enjoyed. Not that there wasn't a lot of good art to come, but I feel I appreciated it rather than enjoyed. I'm a sucker for colour, after all, and that became increasing sombre and bleak as the exhibition headed into the war years.

As head of the National Gallery and influential within government at the time, Clark commissioned artists to capture the changes in the country brought on by the war and commissioned war artists like Henry Moore. There are eight of Moore's drawings of people sheltering in tube tunnels from the Blitz, all deeply drawn with harsh strokes depicting human survival and misery. Moore is generally thought of in the context of monumental and primitive statues but I've admired his drawings for many years, since seeing a documentary on TV years ago, and would love to see a proper exhibition of his drawings.

There is a wall of paintings (in watercolour, I think) of scenes of a passing British landscape, changed forever due to war, and others of bombed buildings and the destroyed Coventry Cathedral. These are important works but I didn't enjoy the pain and savagery they portrayed. The brightest painting in these rooms was a large painting by Paul Nash of the Battle of Britain showing smoke trails of the aeroplanes as they fought and died to protect the nondescript land below.

Then there are the post-war paintings, most noticeably a few small paintings by Mary Kessell, an artist I've never come across before but would like to see more of her work. She painted scenes of Belsen and refugees in the years after the war. Her paintings are bleak and washed out, hinting at hunched shapes through mists and poor lighting, shapes hinting at human bodies. Painful to see but worth looking at and experiencing. I wonder why I've never heard of her before? The things she must have seen back then and dared to interpret and paint.

It's quite a large exhibition in the downstairs space at Tate Britain and is well worth seeing. I was surprised at how relatively few people were there on a Sunday afternoon and put it down to the exhibition having only just opened. There is a lot of art to see so take your time. There's probably something to appeal to everyone and, like the Samuel Palmer I liked, you never know what you might find. I was surprised to see an unheard-of-before Seurat painting almost vibrating with his pointillist stylings and range of colours in the smallest details. Go and see the exhibition and enjoy!

'UPROAR!' at The Ben Uri Gallery

The 'UPROAR!' exhibition at the Ben Uri Gallery celebrates the first 50 years of the London Group of artists over 1913-1963. The title comes from the furore created by Mark Gertler's 'The Creation Of Eve' (opposite). Looking at the painting today it's difficult to imagine why it created so much outrage but it did. It shows God lifting Eve by her hair out of Adam, surrounded by lush grass and huge flowers. Shocking, I know.

The Ben Uri Gallery is just off Abbey Road (yes, Beatles fans, *that* Abbey Road) in what I assume was once a small shop. It's bijou, with the walls hung with paintings upstairs and downstairs in what was probably the storeroom. It's a small space but it's big enough in ambition to take on this exhibition and produce a heavy, glossy programme with all the paintings in the exhibition reproduced alongside short essays. Each artist represented in the exhibition has one painting or other work on display in chronological order, with the later works downstairs. One of my favourites of the later paintings was 'Kitchen Interior' by John Bratby from 1956 that I really wanted to touch to feel the splurges of paint layered on top of paint, ridges of paint behind the glass.

I really liked Duncan Grant's 'Window, South of France' from 1928 that is just that, an open window looking out on a lush and rolling landscape of fields leading down to the sea in the distance. The wall inside the house is covered in wallpaper with rich roses, bringing the garden inside the house, and a vase of poppies reflected in the open window.

This picture doesn't do it justice. The colours are much more vibrant when you see it in front of you with deep reds of the flowers and the greens of the fields are made up of many shades. It's a lovely painting and I'd love it on my living room wall.

It was nice to have Duncan's painting hung next to a small painting of a still life by Vanessa Bell, a bowl of apples a la Cezanne. Other Bloomsberries are represented in the exhibition, including Roger Fry's 'Portrait of Nina Hamnett' from 1917 (below) that I instantly saw was really Suzanne Vega - the resemblance was instantly noticeable to me, possibly because I was seeing Ms Vega that evening at the Barbican.

Another painting that drew my eyes was 'Rue Fontaine de Caylus, Marseilles' by Edward Wadsworth from 1922. It's quite a simple painting in one sense, with washing hung up to dry between the houses on either side of the street. The street descends as it goes deeper into the painting, with a single woman in the street. Who hung up all the washing?

The colour and shapes are what draw me in - sheets and shirts and pants, all hanging out to dry in the breeze. It must have been wet underneath those lines and lines of washing when they were first hung out. Again, I'd be quite happy to have that painting on my wall.

Another painting to name check is 'Self-Portrait' by Claude Rogers from 1938, a painter I've not heard of before. He's dressed in shirt, tie and jacket, looking out at the viewer and he could do with a shave. The interesting thing about it is that it could have been painted yesterday - the hair-cut, the clothes, the attitude, all could be from a hipster now. The only thing that dates it for me is the glasses. I can't find a copy of it online so you'll just have to go an see it for yourself.

All in all, it's a great little exhibition so you can dip your toe into the London Group. It's a brave move by the Ben Uri Gallery and I look forward to seeing what it does next.