Synopses & Reviews
The achievement of Christopher Wood (1901-1930) has often been overshadowed by the legend that grew up around his life after his dramatic suicide at the age of 29. His bohemian lifestyle, feted by both the Paris intelligentsia and members of the English avant-garde, often stole attention from his artistic accomplishments. Increasingly, however, critics have come to see his work, particularly the output of the final two years of his life, as having a pivotal role in the development of modernism in Britain. Pursuing a path between the naturalism of the 1920s and the abstraction of the 1930s, his talent won the admiration of such modernist giants as Picasso and Cocteau and secured his status as among the most important painters of his generation. Virginia Button explores the life and art of Christopher Wood in detail, and also examines the growth of a glamorous narrative of tragic genius that developed during the decades following his death. She discusses the idea of types of masculinity that gained currency in the years between the two World Wars in England and the way in which Wood became aligned with the generation of young British men destroyed by the World War I. The integrity of Wood's endeavor, the combination of self-confidence and uncertainty, of accomplishment and awkwardness, gives his paintings a very human quality that continues to be recognized and admired by audiences and artists alike today.
About the Author
Virginia Button is a former Tate curator and the author of The Turner Prize: Twenty Years (2003).