Exhibition: Legacy: Photographs by Vanessa Bell and Patti Smith

This is the first photography display that combines work by the British modern artist, Vanessa Bell and the American musician, writer and artist, Patti Smith.

The display shows off 17 photographs by Smith and a selection of Bell’s photo albums, displayed publicly for the first time.

The exhibition runs during the gallery’s major retrospective of Vanessa Bell’s work.

Patti Smith has long been drawn to the work and lives of the Bloomsbury Group, finding inspiration and solace in the rural retreats of these artists and thinkers.

The display will include a selection of Smith’s black and white photographs, the product of her residency at Charleston (Bell’s farmhouse on the Sussex Downs) in 2003, which capture the lingering remnants of Bell’s life and chart Smith’s ongoing artistic response to the Bloomsbury group.

On display with Smith’s photographs will be seven of Bell’s photograph albums, loaned from the Tate Archives, that were compiled by Bell during her lifetime.

While Smith’s photographs depict abandoned places, Bell’s teem with a host of characters, captured by her sharp eye and framed by her keen compositional instincts.