Bell, Julian 1952-

PERSONAL:

Born October 1, 1952, in London, England; son of Quentin (a potter and writer) and Anne Bell; married; wife's name Imogen (a lawyer); children: two daughters, one son. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Oxford University, B.A., 1973.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Lewes, East Sussex, England. E-mail—julian@jbell.co.uk.

CAREER:

Painter and art critic, with numerous exhibitions in London, England. City and Guilds of London Art School, lecturer in humanities.

WRITINGS:

(Illustrator) Virginia Woolf, The Widow and the Parrot (juvenile fiction), afterword by Quentin Bell, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1988.

Bonnard, Phaidon (London, England), 1994.

Three Odes; A Tale; and a Bad Poem, Dale House Press, 1997.

What Is Painting? Representation and Modern Art, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 1999.

(Author of introduction) Five Hundred Self-Portraits, Phaidon (London, England), 2000.

Mirror of the World: A New World History of Art, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 2007.

Assistant editor of Grove Dictionary of Art, 1990-94. Contributor to periodicals, including Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, Modern Painter, and Guardian.

SIDELIGHTS:

"A painter who writes about painting," as Norbert Lynton described him in the Times Literary Supplement, Julian Bell has been praised by critics both for the way that personal experience informs his art criticism and for his wide-ranging curiosity. The Economist reviewer of What Is Painting? Representation and Modern Art noted that his knowledge "cuts … a very wide swathe. All ages, all countries and all opinion command his attention."

Bell's roles as artist and writer follow family tradition. His father, Quentin Bell, wrote the authorized biography of his own aunt Virginia Woolf, one of the circle of English intellectuals known as the Bloomsbury Group; this also included Quentin's mother, the painter Vanessa Bell, and Quentin's father, the critic Clive Bell.

What Is Painting? explores the ways in which definitions of painting have changed in the modern world, tracing the decline of interest in "the imitation of nature" and the growth of an art culture that expects painting primarily to communicate emotional or conceptual messages. In the course of an argument based partly on historical evidence and partly on appeals to experience, Bell, as the Economist correspondent put it, "takes the keywords of art history and wrestles them on to the mat, one by one." Frances Spalding in the Daily Telegraph noted Bell's explanatory willingness to "follow every conceptual twist with impressive ability."

Bell's own position represents a loyal defense of painting as an art. Lynton explained: "At a time when the death of painting is routinely stated, Bell wants to assert its life and energies." Lynton noted that Bell's own preference for "figurative painting, preferably of a subtly expressive and discursive kind," unmistakably emerges and that he shows relatively little regard for abstract art. The book met with a positive response from Tom Rosenthal of the Times Higher Education Supplement: "It bears all the hallmarks of a classical text."

What Is Painting? was preceded by a short monograph on Bonnard, which according to David Cohen in the Sunday Times is "written with exquisite poise and acuity." Bell also wrote a volume of poetry containing a dramatic monologue titled "Secrets of the Kingdom," which is given in the person of Jesus's brother James.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1999, Frances Spalding, review of What Is Painting? Representation and Modern Art.

Economist, May 1, 1999, review of What Is Painting?, p. 82.

Sunday Times (London, England), June 6, 1999, David Cohen, review of What Is Painting?, p. 10.

Times Educational Supplement, May 21, 1999, Tom Rosenthal, review of What Is Painting?, p. 26.

Times Literary Supplement, May 7, 1999, article by Norbert Lynton, p. 19.