Alicia Foster Libri

NINA HAMNETT (1890–1956) was an artist, illustrator and writer who was associated with the bohemian and avant-garde circles of the London and Parisian art scenes in the first decades of the twentieth century.Hamnett’s career included designs for the Bloomsbury Group’s Omega Workshops; she was also an artist’s model for her friend Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, and published her life-story in two autobiographies. But it was her sensitive and formal still life paintings, her striking, often acerbic drawings, and her perceptive portraits of poets, dancers and friends which defined her achievements as an artist.Alicia Foster brings together works from public and private collections to foreground the accomplishments of a talented and ambitious woman who wasn't afraid to do things differently. In this book, for the first time, Nina Hamnett is celebrated as an artist in her own right.

Buckinghamshire, 1942: in a gothic villa deep in woods near Bletchley Park, artist Vivienne Thayer paints 'Black' propaganda to demoralise the enemy. Despite government restrictions, she enjoys her work - and finds time for a lover as well as her indulgent husband - but where do acts of subterfuge end?

Focusing on the life and art of Jessica Dismorr, Radical Women explores the broader landscape of British modernism by highlighting the contributions of women artists in her circle. It uncovers a vibrant yet tumultuous era in art history, revealing intricate connections among these artists that have previously been overlooked. This comprehensive narrative sheds light on their collective impact and significance in the modernist movement.

One of the most significant British artists of the twentieth century, Gwen John (1867-1939) made her life and work within the heady art worlds of London and Paris.0 0This critical biography demolishes the myth of Gwen John as a recluse and situates her, brilliant, singular and assured, amid a rich cultural milieu that included James McNeill Whistler, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Paula Modersohn-Becker and Maude Gonne. Art historian, curator and novelist Alicia Foster draws on previously unpublished archival sources to explore John?s many relationships with artists and writers, including her affair with Auguste Rodin, passionate friendships with Jeanne Robert Foster and Véra Oumançoff, and correspondence with, among others, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke and her Slade compatriot and fellow painter Ursula Tyrwhitt. John?s library, ranging from writing by her friends Rilke and Arthur Symonds to French philosophy and religious thought, is considered, as is her part in the increasing presence and visibility of women artists in the early-twentieth-century art world. From the life rooms of the Slade to the Paris salons, this is the story of an artist both devoted to her craft and deeply involved in the life and creativity of her era.0 0With over 120 illustrations, 'Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris' offers a lively, meticulously researched portrait of Gwen John as a vital and utterly compelling figure in twentieth-century art history.00Exhibition: Pallant House Gallery, Chichester , UK (13.05. - 08.10.2023)