More than 80 paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, prints and photographs.
More than 80 paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, prints and photographs that have been generously given to Charleston including works by Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, Lettice Ramsay, Walter Sickert and Henry Tonks.
'Gifted' presents more than 80 works that have been generously given to Charleston in recent years, with many of the portraits of Bloomsbury lovers, friends, children and grandchildren being unveiled for the first time. Showcasing works by artists including Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, Walter Sickert, Henry Tonks and Lettice Ramsay, the exhibition explores the artistic expression of family life and personal relationships through a selection of paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, prints and photographs. Angelica Garnett, the daughter of artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, generously donated a collection of works on paper and canvases to Charleston in 2008. Many of the works in the exhibition illuminate her parent's artistic practice and had formerly filled the drawers, folios and studio racks at Charleston. One of the highlights of the exhibition is a portrait of Vanessa Bell by Duncan Grant which has recently been allocated to Charleston and acquired for the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, administered by the Arts Council. The painting is quintessentially a Charleston painting. A portrait of an artist by an artist, of a friend by a friend and of a lover by their lover. Painted during the uncertainty of wartime, quite possibly at Charleston itself, it marks the development of a friendship into a love affair while defining the development of an artist's individual style. Ticket price also includes entry to 'Shani Rhys James: tea on the sofa, blood on the carpet' - a major exhibition of new work by the acclaimed artist Shani Rhys James; charting her painterly challenge of the cyclical and relentless passage of life in the artist's frank, emotional and exuberant style.
