Profiles  |  Origins  |  Members  |  Lifestyle and beliefs  |  Influence and achievements

Influence and achievements

Bloomsbury has had its critics. Seen by some as privileged dilettantes dabbling in the arts, their lifestyle has often been criticised as elitist and a hangover from the bohemianism of the nineteenth century. Their artistic output has sometimes been dismissed as decorative and unoriginal, as this review of an exhibition of Bloomsbury art at Tate in 1999 suggests. Although they enjoyed great success, it is often argued that much of the innovation and bold modernism displayed in the art of the Bloomsbury Group in the years immediately before World War I, was watered down in the later Bloomsbury work. In the 1930s they were eclipsed by the emergence of younger artists such as Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, who, with their more uncompromisingly abstract style and alliance with socialist ideals, seemed more in tune with modern life. Mail on Sunday, 'Grand Masters of Mediocrity', 7 Nov 1999 © Associated Newspapers

Rug designs for Omega by Duncan Grant. Mary Hogarth / Vogue © The Condé Nast Publications Ltd

However, despite the criticisms levelled at them, many of the members of the Bloomsbury circle were important thinkers and innovators and their achievements and influence should not be dismissed or overshadowed by their backgrounds and lifestyle: Bloomsbury is altogether to the fore - the name of Grant is pronounced with respect amongst the artists, and that of Keynes amongst the intellectuals, that of Lytton Strachey among the 'lettres'. Clive Bell in a letter to Vanessa Bell, Nov. 1919? When Clive Bell made this observation in a letter to Vanessa Bell, he was writing from Paris where he met and socialised with important cultural figures such as Picasso, Cocteau and Satie. That the names of the Bloomsbury artists and intellectuals were known in these circles suggests the extent of their reputation.

Although the art of Bloomsbury may today look rather traditional in the context of the development of twentieth-century art, their influence and contribution to British art was considerable. Fry, Bell, and Grant were amongst the first in Britain to make purely abstract art. Grant's Abstract Kinetic Collage was an extremely radical and ambitious pioneering work in European abstraction with its combination of sound, light and movement. Many of the designs produced by the Omega Workshops, particularly the textiles, were innovative, and still look very modern today. The artist and critic Roger Fry was one of the most catalytic figures in British art in the first half of the century. His writings, collected in Vision and Design in 1920 were, along with Clive Bell's Art published in 1914, among the most influential critical writing of the time and did much to shape the development of British Modernism.

Artist list from Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition catalogue, 1912 © Tate Archive, 2003

Catalogue for London Group Retrospective Exhibition, 1928 © Tate Archive, 2003

The two exhibitions Fry organised, Manet and the Post-Impressionists in 1910 and the Second Post-Impressionism Exhibition in 1911-12, introduced the work of contemporary European artists to England (to this day the most comprehensive survey of post-impressionist art to have been exhibited in this country). For many young British artists this was their first encounter with Post-Impressionism, and led to great experimentation with colour and abstraction. Perhaps the Bloomsbury group's most important contribution was its nurturing of environments and organisations that provided focus and support for young artists. In this, its role was central to the development of art during the early twentieth century. The Friday Club, and Grafton Group offered a forum for young artists to meet, share ideas, and exhibit their work. The London Artists Association which was founded largely as a result of the inspiration and hard work of Bloomsbury members, particularly Maynard Keynes, provided artists with a means of selling their work. As was the establishment of the Contemporary Art Society, whose mission was to raise funds to purchase contemporary works of art to present to museums and galleries (Tate has a number of CAS assisted acquisitions).

The Omega Workshops, brought together some of the most talented young artists of the day and provided financial support for them. Many of these such as Wyndham Lewis and Paul Nash, went on to become major figures in British art. Omega also fostered important relations between applied and fine artists. Bell and Grant continued to support younger artists throughout their lives, most notably those associated with the Euston Road School in the 1930s. The Hogarth Press, set up in 1917 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf to publish contemporary fiction and political comment (with book jackets by Vanessa Bell for some of the publications), published work by some of the most important writers of the twentieth century, including Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Katherine Mansfield and E.M. Forster. It also later published translations of the writings of Sigmund Freud, one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century.

Virginia Woolf, Walter Sickert: a conversation Used by permission of the Random House Group Limited