Left: Paule Vézelay in her London studio with her 1955 textile Harmony (left) and her 1956 painting The Yellow Circle (right), photograph, Estate of Paule Vézelay; Right: Eight Curved Forms and Two Circles (1947), Paule Vézelay. Collection of James Trotman; courtesy James Trotman © the Estate of Paule Vézelay
Work by Bristol-born artist Paule Vézelay, an underappreciated pioneer of British modernism is on show at the Royal West of England Academy, the first major exhibition of her art in more than 40 years.
The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is currently home to the first major exhibition of Bristol-born female artist Paule Vézelay’s work in over 40 years, offering an unprecedented insight into the artist’s accomplished seven-decade career. Featuring over 60 works from private and public collections, including examples of her best-known paintings and sculptures alongside rarely-exhibited textiles, Paule Vézelay: Living Lines (on until 27 April) seeks to rightly afford the artist’s place within the history of British and European Modernism.
Avante-garde ambition
The exhibition reveals how she became a prominent figure within the European avant-garde, working alongside some of the most significant artists of pre-war Paris, including Alexander Calder, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Jean Arp, Marlow Moss, Wassily Kandinsky and André Masson.
As well as bringing together examples of Vézelay’s best-known paintings and sculptures, such as Object in Three Dimensions (1935) and Construction. Grey Lines on Pink Ground (1938) from the Tate Collection, the exhibition will feature several works which have not been publicly exhibited before, including Composition Objects and Sun (1930) and Eight Curved Forms and Two Circles (1946).
Born in Bristol in 1892, Vézelay (born Marjorie Watson-Williams) made her first visit to Paris in 1920, where she was captivated by the energy of the city. In 1926 she settled there, changing her name the following year to reflect her new life in the international art scene. Living Lines begins by tracing the formative period of her career, bringing together important examples of her early figurative illustrations, drawings, watercolours such as Bristol Hippodrome (1918-19), and linocuts such as Bathers (1923) to reveal the development of her artistic style.
Rightfully recognised
The show’s curator Simon Grant, who became familiar with Vézelay’s work while working for Tate, explains that he was inspired to put Living Lines together “not just because she’s an incredible artist, but because she’s very underrated… She deserves to be far better known.” The reasons behind Vézelay remaining something of a hidden gem are complex, with Simon suspecting it was “partly misogyny, and partly timing; she became a really important international artist, but then the war broke out.”
After the outbreak of the Second World War, Vézelay returned to England from Paris, where she spent time in Bristol and London (Grant suspects that “she struggled to reintegrate slightly”), and although never granted official war artist status, made a number of drawings of barrage balloons and war damage in and around Bristol. After briefly returning to Paris post war, she eventually settled in London, and made intense efforts to revitalise abstraction in British art by forming a London branch of Group Espace, the avant-garde artistic movement. Alongside her paintings and sculpture, she also produced an extraordinary range of little-known textiles from the late 1940s and 1950s for brands, including Heal’s, a selection of which are on display within the exhibition.
Beyond boundaries
Uncompromising and clear-sighted in her artistic ambitions, Paule Vézelay continued to push creative boundaries throughout her long career. This exhibition, accompanied by the first major publication on her work, Paule Vézelay: Living Lines, aims to deepen our understanding and appreciation of one of Britain’s most significant 20th-century artists.
“I admire her constant experimentation and unwavering self-belief,” explains Grant. “There’s always a connection to nature in her work. She was deeply inspired by organic forms, which stemmed from her upbringing in Bristol – walking along the Avon, exploring the Downs, and spending time in Somerset. She even went fishing with her father.
“While she didn’t want to make this connection to nature overly explicit it underpinned so much of what she created, and it’s one of the reasons I find her work so beautiful.”
Grant continues, “We hope this exhibition and the accompanying publication will introduce Vézelay’s groundbreaking work to new generations. She was a fascinating person, and her art radiates joy. I hope many people from Bristol and beyond will come to see it. Uncovering new works has been a revelation for me, and there are so many incredible stories from her life. I hope the exhibition captures that and allows audiences to experience her extraordinary journey.”
Paule Vézelay: Living Lines is at the RWA until 27 April; for more information visit rwa.org.uk
