This Dark Country

Birrell, Rebecca

£10.99

Lemons gleam in a bowl. Flowers fan out softly in a vase. A door swings open in a sparsely furnished room. What is contained in a still life – and what falls out of the frame? For women artists in the early twentieth century, including Ethel Sands, Nina Hamnett, Vanessa Bell, and Gwen John, who lived in and around the Bloomsbury Group, this art form was a conduit for their lives, their rebellions, their quiet loves for men and women. In this blend of group biography and art criticism, Birrell brings these shadowy figures into the light and conducts a dazzling investigation into the structures of intimacy that make – and dismantle – our worlds.

Available on backorder

Publish Date: 18/08/2022
ISBN: 9781526604033 Category: Tag:

Description

Shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2022Longlisted for the William M B Berger Prize for British Art History 2022Guardian Art Book of the Year 2021 A dazzling, boldly original work that tells the powerful and passionate stories of a group of extraordinary women as glimpsed through their still life paintingsWhat is contained in a still life – and what falls out of the frame? For women artists in the early twentieth century, such as Dora Carrington, Vanessa Bell and Gwen John, this art form was a conduit for their lives, their rebellions, their quietly subversive loves for men and women.But for every artist whom we remember, there are those whose work is almost forgotten. In This Dark Country, Rebecca Birrell conducts a dazzling fusion of group biography and art criticism, exploring, from the celebrated to the overlooked, the structures of intimacy that make – and dismantle – our worlds.‘A brilliant book … A truly radical aesthetics fit for the twenty-first century at last!‘ – Thérèse Oulton‘[A] wonderful book. I am impressed and fascinated. It is beautifully written’ – Celia Paul

Additional information

Weight 310 g
Dimensions 198 × 129 × 28 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

384

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

709.252 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K