Vanessa Bell by Duncan Grant
Exhibition stirs Bloomsbury memories for Sussex art historian. A "revisitation of my past" is how University of Sussex art historian Professor David Alan Mellor describes 'Radical Bloomsbury' , a new exhibition he has curated for Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. His interest in the Bloomsbury group artists began when he was taught by Quentin Bell - a professor of art history at Sussex from 1967 until 1976 and the son of artist Vanessa Bell. He suggested his students have tea with artist Duncan Grant at Charleston Farmhouse, the home Grant once shared with Bell and their intellectual coterie. "Grant was in his eighties at this point, but he was incredibly funny and witty," remembers Professor Mellor. "He had always been very personable - Matisse and Picasso had liked this spry little Scottish guy who was always laughing. "I have curated exhibitions since the 1970s to do with people like Francis Bacon, and a lot of photography and pop art displays.
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