Quentin Bell: A Life in Art

Exuberant and gloriously unconventional, Quentin Bell was a truly experimental artist.

Bell's fame as a chronicler of Bloomsbury has often eclipsed his own dramatic, sensuous and fantastical work as an artist, now on display from September at his childhood home, Charleston, in the first exhibition for thirty years.Here, the results of a lifelong adventure in multi-media making are assembled, in the form of gravity-defying sculptures, rumbustious ceramics and lyrical illustrations, embracing a dazzling repertoire of goddesses, levitating ladies, mermaids and sea monsters.Bell dedicated his working life to the visual arts.

As a working artist, critic, academic and teacher he brought a lively, questioning intelligence to the study of art, while after Duncan Grant's death he played a crucial role in establishing the Trust that would preserve and restore Charleston.Now, for the first time, Quentin Bell's three children come together to discuss his life and legacy.

Virginia Nicholson, writer and historian; Cressida Bell, artist and textile designer; and Julian Bell, artist and art writer, each bring a distinct perspective on their father, from his creative practice and intellectual life to his enduring relationship with Charleston.