Quentin Bell

About

Discover the work of Quentin Bell (1910-1996), son of artist Vanessa Bell and art critic Clive Bell, and best known as the biographer of his aunt Virginia Woolf, as an artist in his own right. This exhibition will reveal his originality as an artist in many media.

Bell’s practice began at Charleston, where he arrived at the age of 6. He dug clay from the pond, built ceramic towers and illustrated a daily family newspaper written by his aunt, Virginia Woolf. This exhibition traces that practice across a lifetime, from childhood invention to his mature work as a potter, sculptor and illustrator.

Bringing together over 100 works, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to encounter the full range of Bell’s career: from childhood invention to his mature works in ceramics, sculpture, painted objects and works on paper.

Exuberant, funny and strange, Bell’s ceramic figures levitate; his illustrated novels veer into the dystopian; his ‘Goggle Boxes’ introduce a dimension of mixed-media magic. Plates, mugs and earthenware sit alongside sculptural works that delight in movement, colour and excess. The exhibition extends beyond the galleries into the house and garden, where large sculptural works, including the ‘Levitating Figure’, ‘Pomona’ and ‘The Spink’, are sited across the grounds.

At a time when so much is computer-generated and machine-made, Bell’s art is a reminder that the handmade carries something that can’t be replicated — the accidental, the mark of the hand and the joy of making.

The first exhibition in almost thirty years dedicated Bell, the opening on 19 September 2026 coincides with the 30th anniversary of his death.