Greetings! I’ve been looking ahead a little, and there are some fabulous books coming up that might be of interest to our (as I like to think of it) Art, Books & Culture Research Group (!):
This is actually just out: Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The lives and loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell – a great dual biography moving between early 20th-century London and Paris to document Augustus and Gwen’s very different searches for personal and artistic freedom: a powerful portrait of two prodigiously talented artists and visionaries, whose experiments with form and colour created some of the most memorable work of the early twentieth century (Pan Macmillan; June 2025).
Another dual biography coming soon (September) takes us back to the 18th-century: Mrs Kauffman and Madame Le Brun – The Extraordinary Entwined Lives of Two Eighteenth-Century Painters by Franny Moyle: With vivid storytelling… [Moyle] examines how each artist navigated fame, scandal and exile; explores the relationships between them and their peers; and considers how they were caught up in the huge cultural cross-currents that were reshaping Europe (Bloomsbury).
In September too, novelist Damian Barr‘s new book The Two Roberts is a fictional re-telling of the lives of another two artists, Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun: a profoundly moving story of devotion and obsession, art and class. It is a love letter to MacBryde and Colquhoun, the almost-forgotten artists who tried to change the way the world sees – and paid a devastating price [Canongate]. There’s an interview with the author c/o The Fleming Collection, here: https://www.flemingcollection.com/scottish_art_news/news-press/the-two-roberts-artists-lovers-outsiders.
Trying to change the world was also the spur for the Artists International Association, a rarely recognised network of British artists, and so important, especially in the 1930s. With a foreword by the always-fabulous Frances Spalding, Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism 1933-1943 by Andy Friend arrives in September and promises to be an exceptional survey [bringing] to life the captivating drama of the organisation as it rapidly grew to command the allegiance of a majority of Britain’s aspiring and established artists, offering new insights into art and culture during this decade of political extremes [Thames & Hudson]. Having been lucky enough to see a copy already, I noted how gloriously illustrated it is, which is very exciting indeed!
All best & happy reading, the common viewer
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British Art Groups 1830s-1930s
Early 20th century Art & Visual Culture: London, Paris, Moscow & beyond.
“Nancy Cunard – An Uncommon Viewer”
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thecommonviewer 