Bloomsbury critics Roger Fry and Clive Bell instigated a new way of looking at art that focused on the visionary genius of the artist. This book traces the Anglo-American dialogue they inspired and demonstrates how Bloomsbury’s new aesthetic was taken up by the urban intelligentsia in 1920s.
«For some twenty-five years, Roger Fry and Clive Bell had a significant, if now largely overlooked, influence upon the aesthetics of visual Modernism. David Maddock’s deeply researched book skillfully argues for Fry and Bell’s philosophical and institutional importance to an intriguing ‹backstory› that goes beyond ‹Bloomsbury› to cast new light on the key artists, movements and critical debates of Anglo-American Modernism.» (Douglas Tallack, Emeritus Professor of American Studies, University of Leicester, UK)
«A superb study that reveals the close connections between the aesthetic thought of Roger Fry and Clive Bell and its long-reaching impact on American modernism that makes an important contribution to our understanding of the transnational networks that defined modern art and the ideas and institutions that supported it.» (Anna Gruetzner Robins, Professor Emeritus in History of Art, University of Reading)