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9781526604033 6307686fb37394f3daf886ca This Dark Country Women Artists Still Life And Intimacy In The Early Twentieth Century https://www.midlandbookshop.com/s/607fe93d7eafcac1f2c73ea4/63076870b37394f3daf886ee/516udrp28gl-_sx324_bo1-204-203-200_.jpg

'As seductive as it is scholarly ... Riveting' Financial Times

'Unusual and refreshing ... Brilliant' Leanne Shapton

'A bold, unusual book, filled with archival research, exuberant ideas and a determination to counter misogyny' Diana Souhami, RA Magazine

------------------------------
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. Gluck, who challenged the framing of her gender and her art, painted flowers arranged by the woman she loved; Dora Carrington, a Slade School graduate, recorded eggs on a table at Tidmarsh Mill, where she built a richly fulfilling if delicate life with Lytton Strachey.

But for every artist whom we remember, there is another we have forgotten, one who leaves only elusive traces, whose art was replaced by being a mother or wife, whose remaining artworks lie dusty in archives or attics.

In this boldly original blend of group biography and art criticism, Rebecca Birrell brings these shadowy figures into the light and conducts a dazzling investigation into 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

'A magnificent debut by one of Britain's most electrifying new talents' Camilla Grudova

 
 

Review

Blending flights of poetic rhapsody with more traditional critical language, This Dark Country is as seductive as it is scholarly ... Riveting - Financial Times

[A] wonderful book. I am impressed and fascinated. It is beautifully written. Each woman artist, in this superb book, addresses the need to transform the confines she inhabits into a space of empowerment. These artists all lived and worked in the first part of the twentieth century yet their legacy continues to be relevant -- Celia Paul

A brilliant book ... A truly radical aesthetics fit for the twenty-first century at last! -- Thérèse Oulton

A beautifully written and important art historical work, This Dark Country is a magnificent debut by one of Britain's most electrifying new talents. I cannot wait to read what she writes next! -- Camilla Grudova, author of THE DOLL's ALPHABET

[An] unusual and refreshing group biography of artists ... I loved Birrell's brilliant re-apprehension of Rodin's The Thinker through the experience of Gwen John. And her explanation of the magnitude of rooms and importance of room, in these women's lives -- Leanne Shapton

[A] beautiful, bold new book . explores the desires and ambitions of women artists, moving beyond the frame to reflect lives that rarely fit convention -- Chlöe Ashby - Elephant

Birrell's blend of art criticism and biography works best when it is tethered to real-world calculation. She is particularly good at teasing out the stubborn material facts that underpin the most serene of still lifes -- Kathryn Hughes - Guardian

Rebecca Birrell urges us to ask new questions about gender and genre, domesticity and work . At its heart is the challenge of understanding the lives and works of women whose desires and ambitions often demanded secrecy, evasion and ambiguity -- Norma Clarke - Literary Review

[I was] captivated by this extraordinary book - stayed up way too late scribbling my astonishment on all the pages -- Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of 'A Ghost in the Throat'

This is a bold, unusual book, filled with archival research, exuberant ideas and a determination to counter misogyny -- Diana Souhami - RA Magazine

We have not generally thought of the still life as a radical feminist genre - until now. In This Dark Country, Rebecca Birrell gives a sensitive, deeply researched look at the lives behind the still lives, showing us how for a group of early twentieth-century women artists the home became a radical feminist space in which to redefine domesticity and their relationships to the world outside. There is a calm and companionable stillness to Birrell's prose, too; I loved seeing these paintings through Birrell's eyes.

-- Lauren Elkin

Book Description

A dazzling, boldly original work that tells the powerful and passionate stories of a group of extraordinary women as glimpsed through their still life paintings

About the Author

Rebecca Birrell grew up in Southport, and lives in Cambridge. She studied English Literature at UCL, followed by Women's Studies at the University of Oxford. She has occupied curatorial positions at the Jewish Museum London, the Department of Prints and Drawing at the British Museum and at the Charleston Trust. In 2018 she undertook a fellowship at the Yale Centre for British Art. She completed her PhD at the Edinburgh College of Art. She is a curator in the Department of Paintings, Drawings and Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.
 
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This Dark Country Women Artists Still Life And Intimacy In The Early Twentieth Century

This Dark Country Women Artists Still Life And Intimacy In The Early Twentieth Century

ISBN: 9781526604033
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  • ISBN: 9781526604033
  • Author: Rebecca Birrell
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury
  • Pages: 384
  • Format: Paperback
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Book Description

'As seductive as it is scholarly ... Riveting' Financial Times

'Unusual and refreshing ... Brilliant' Leanne Shapton

'A bold, unusual book, filled with archival research, exuberant ideas and a determination to counter misogyny' Diana Souhami, RA Magazine

------------------------------
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. Gluck, who challenged the framing of her gender and her art, painted flowers arranged by the woman she loved; Dora Carrington, a Slade School graduate, recorded eggs on a table at Tidmarsh Mill, where she built a richly fulfilling if delicate life with Lytton Strachey.

But for every artist whom we remember, there is another we have forgotten, one who leaves only elusive traces, whose art was replaced by being a mother or wife, whose remaining artworks lie dusty in archives or attics.

In this boldly original blend of group biography and art criticism, Rebecca Birrell brings these shadowy figures into the light and conducts a dazzling investigation into 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

'A magnificent debut by one of Britain's most electrifying new talents' Camilla Grudova

 
 

Review

Blending flights of poetic rhapsody with more traditional critical language, This Dark Country is as seductive as it is scholarly ... Riveting - Financial Times

[A] wonderful book. I am impressed and fascinated. It is beautifully written. Each woman artist, in this superb book, addresses the need to transform the confines she inhabits into a space of empowerment. These artists all lived and worked in the first part of the twentieth century yet their legacy continues to be relevant -- Celia Paul

A brilliant book ... A truly radical aesthetics fit for the twenty-first century at last! -- Thérèse Oulton

A beautifully written and important art historical work, This Dark Country is a magnificent debut by one of Britain's most electrifying new talents. I cannot wait to read what she writes next! -- Camilla Grudova, author of THE DOLL's ALPHABET

[An] unusual and refreshing group biography of artists ... I loved Birrell's brilliant re-apprehension of Rodin's The Thinker through the experience of Gwen John. And her explanation of the magnitude of rooms and importance of room, in these women's lives -- Leanne Shapton

[A] beautiful, bold new book . explores the desires and ambitions of women artists, moving beyond the frame to reflect lives that rarely fit convention -- Chlöe Ashby - Elephant

Birrell's blend of art criticism and biography works best when it is tethered to real-world calculation. She is particularly good at teasing out the stubborn material facts that underpin the most serene of still lifes -- Kathryn Hughes - Guardian

Rebecca Birrell urges us to ask new questions about gender and genre, domesticity and work . At its heart is the challenge of understanding the lives and works of women whose desires and ambitions often demanded secrecy, evasion and ambiguity -- Norma Clarke - Literary Review

[I was] captivated by this extraordinary book - stayed up way too late scribbling my astonishment on all the pages -- Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of 'A Ghost in the Throat'

This is a bold, unusual book, filled with archival research, exuberant ideas and a determination to counter misogyny -- Diana Souhami - RA Magazine

We have not generally thought of the still life as a radical feminist genre - until now. In This Dark Country, Rebecca Birrell gives a sensitive, deeply researched look at the lives behind the still lives, showing us how for a group of early twentieth-century women artists the home became a radical feminist space in which to redefine domesticity and their relationships to the world outside. There is a calm and companionable stillness to Birrell's prose, too; I loved seeing these paintings through Birrell's eyes.

-- Lauren Elkin

Book Description

A dazzling, boldly original work that tells the powerful and passionate stories of a group of extraordinary women as glimpsed through their still life paintings

About the Author

Rebecca Birrell grew up in Southport, and lives in Cambridge. She studied English Literature at UCL, followed by Women's Studies at the University of Oxford. She has occupied curatorial positions at the Jewish Museum London, the Department of Prints and Drawing at the British Museum and at the Charleston Trust. In 2018 she undertook a fellowship at the Yale Centre for British Art. She completed her PhD at the Edinburgh College of Art. She is a curator in the Department of Paintings, Drawings and Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.
 

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