Milton Keynes Gallery have announced they will be hosting an exhibition celebrating the artist Vanessa Bell.

Opening 19 October 2024 and running until 23 February 2025, Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour, will see the work of Vanessa Bell (1879–1961) presented at MK Gallery. It is announced by the gallery as the most comprehensive survey ever of the work of the artist.

This exhibition, the first of Bell’s work in the UK in seven years, presents a picture of the entire range of her practice through more than 120 works, covering paintings, drawings, furniture, ceramics, designs for murals, advertising and book covers, which celebrates work done at the forefront of British abstraction.

Born in London in 1879, Vanessa Bell died in Sussex in 1961 and along with her sister Virginia Woolf, and fellow painter, Duncan Grant, she was a central figure of the Bloomsbury Group. Her role in creating the conditions in which artistic practice could flourish from the Friday Club to Omega Workshop, has left an indelible mark on the history of British art. MK Gallery’s exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Charleston, in Sussex, the home of Vanessa Bell and her fellow painter, Duncan Grant. It is curated by Anthony Spira, Director, and Fay Blanchard, Head of Exhibitions at MK Gallery.

The exhibition includes major loans from public and private collections including the Courtauld, which is currently showing a focused display of her works from their collection.

A lavishly illustrated new catalogue will be published to coincide with the exhibition with an essay by Dr. Rebecca Birrell, Research Affiliate for The Fitzwilliam Museum, and contributions from Judy Chicago, the Singh Twins, Paulina Olowska and Hayley Tompkins.

Anyone seeking to view the works can find out more at the MK Gallery website.