Bloomsbury Rooms: Modernism, Subculture, and Domesticity [Hardcover]

Prof. Christopher Reed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2004

The first decades of the twentieth century brought enormous change in Britain. Men's and women's roles came under scrutiny, class and social structures were transformed. This book casts new light on the notorious Bloomsbury Group and how the issues of their day influenced their interpretation and decoration of the home. Christopher Reed analyses the rooms designed by Bloomsbury artists as spaces in which to be modern. The book traces the development of Bloomsbury's domestic aesthetic from the group's influential promulgation of Post-Impressionism in Britain around 1910 through the 1930s. In detailed studies of rooms and environments created by Virginia Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Roger Fry, Reed challenges the accepted notion that these artists drifted away from modernism. He presents their work as an alternative form of modernism, later suppressed by sexist and homophobic attitudes that disparaged the decorative arts and domesticity in general, as well as Bloomsbury in particular. The aesthetic and ideological implications of the Bloomsbury interiors were international in scope, Reed argues, and these domestic designs served as an important marker along the route to modernity.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Published in association with the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture

About the Author

Christopher Reed is Chair of the Art Department at Lake Forest College. This is his third book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Bard Center (May 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300102488
• ISBN-13: 978-0300102482
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Interior Design > Professional Reference
  • #61 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Interior Design > Decoration & Ornament

More About the Author

I am interested in the intersections of visual culture (a fancy term for art and design) with issues of gender and sexuality. One of my books, Art and Homosexuality, deals with these ideas broadly. Others deal with more specific examples. My primary focus has been the art and environments created by and for members of the Bloomsbury group, but I am also interested in topics ranging from the uses of Japanese aesthetics in the "West" to contemporary queer art and design.