{"title":"Rebecca Birrell","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"this-dark-country-book-rebecca-birrell-9781526604019","title":"This Dark Country","description":"Shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2022  Longlisted for the William M B Berger Prize for British Art History 2022  A boldly original work that tells the powerful stories of a group of extraordinary women as glimpsed through their still life paintings  **Picked as an Art Book of the Year 2021 by the Guardian**  'As seductive as it is scholarly ... Riveting' Financial Times  'A wonderfully rich, deeply researched page-turner ... Sumptuous, precise and bewitching' Jennifer Higgie  'Playful, provocative ... Her attentive, evocative prose renderings of paintings are pleasures in themselves' Times Literary Supplement  ------------------------------ Lemons gleam in a bowl. Flowers fan out softly in a vase. A door swings open in a sparsely furnished room. What is contained in a still life – and what falls out of the frame?  For women artists in the early twentieth century, including Ethel Sands, Nina Hamnett, Vanessa Bell and Gwen John, who lived in and around the Bloomsbury Group, the still life was a conduit for their lives, their rebellions, their quiet loves for men and women. Gluck, who challenged the framing of her gender and her art, painted flowers arranged by the woman she loved; Dora Carrington, a Slade School graduate, recorded eggs on a table at Tidmarsh Mill, where she built a richly fulfilling if delicate life with Lytton Strachey.    But for every artist we remember, there is one we have forgotten, who leaves only elusive traces, whose art was replaced by being a mother or wife, whose remaining artworks lie dusty in archives or attics.    In this boldly original blend of group biography and art criticism, Rebecca Birrell brings these shadowy figures into the light and conducts a dazzling investigation into the structures of intimacy that make – and dismantle – our worlds.  'Unusual and refreshing ... Brilliant' Leanne Shapton  'A brilliant book ... A truly radical aesthetics fit for the twenty-first century at last!' Thérèse Oulton  '[A] wonderful book. I am impressed and fascinated. It is beautifully written' Celia Paul  'A magnificent debut by one of Britain's most electrifying new talents' Camilla Grudova  'A bold, unusual book, filled with archival research, exuberant ideas and a determination to counter misogyny' Diana Souhami, RA Magazine","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49582452015377,"sku":"GOR011794872","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50266888798481,"sku":"GOR011896561","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53615876800785,"sku":"CIN1526604019VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1526604019.jpg?v=1751340369"},{"product_id":"this-dark-country-book-rebecca-birrell-9781526604033","title":"This Dark Country","description":"Shortlisted  for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2022  Longlisted for the William M B Berger Prize for British Art History 2022  Guardian Art Book of the Year 2021   A dazzling, boldly original work that tells the powerful and passionate stories of a group of extraordinary women as glimpsed through their still life paintings  What is contained in a still life – and what falls out of the frame? For women artists in the early twentieth century, such as Dora Carrington, Vanessa Bell and Gwen John, this art form was a conduit for their lives, their rebellions, their quietly subversive loves for men and women.  But for every artist whom we remember, there are those whose work is almost forgotten. In This Dark Country, Rebecca Birrell conducts a dazzling fusion of group biography and art criticism, exploring, from the celebrated to the overlooked, the structures of intimacy that make – and dismantle – our worlds.  'A brilliant book ... A truly radical aesthetics fit for the twenty-first century at last!' - Thérèse Oulton  '[A] wonderful book. I am impressed and fascinated. It is beautifully written' - Celia Paul","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49612013371665,"sku":"GOR012780596","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49744297001233,"sku":"NGR9781526604033","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50811295891729,"sku":"GOR014082013","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52134643597585,"sku":"NLS9781526604033","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53393865441553,"sku":"CIN1526604035G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53477361582353,"sku":"GOR012663061","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1526604035.jpg?v=1750860764"},{"product_id":"venus-vanishing-book-rebecca-birrell-9781250457233","title":"Venus, Vanishing","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Gripping, gorgeously written.\" --Joanna Quinn, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Whalebone Theatre\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"Extraordinary.\" --Elizabeth O''Connor, author of \u003ci\u003eWhale Fall\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"Vivid...Asking what it means to make art in an emergency.\" --Eleanor Catton, author of \u003ci\u003eBirnam Wood\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Luminaries\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ePortrait of a Lady on Fire\u003c\/i\u003e meets \u003ci\u003eThe Safekeep\u003c\/i\u003e in this gripping debut that reckons with art forgery, desire, suspicion, and resistance\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In raucous 1928 Berlin, Hannah Sherman has deviated from the traditional narrative arc of a woman''s life. After rejecting an arranged marriage, she leaves home to join the city''s underground art scene, reveling in its clubs and galleries with newfound friends and lovers. Working as a tailor while studying art in every spare moment, Hannah comes to know women and their bodies, first with measuring tape and silk, and later through sensuous layers of paint.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Hannah feels like she can finally call herself an artist when a wealthy female art collector commissions her to make an elaborate series of nude portraits. But after Hannah finishes the acclaimed Venus paintings, she discovers that her work is being tampered with and exhibited under a man''s name. When lines between artist and muse are crossed in an intoxicating but perilous affair, Hannah transforms her art into an act of revenge, finding herself caught up in a devastating game of survival.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Laced with queer desire and life-threatening secrets, \u003ci\u003eVenus, Vanishing\u003c\/i\u003e pulses with hedonism and danger as history comes to Hannah''s door, offering a textured and sweeping counter-narrative of Jewish survival, creativity, and resistance.\u003c\/p\u003e female art collector commissions her to make an elaborate series of nude portraits. But after Hannah finishes the acclaimed Venus paintings, she discovers that her work is being tampered with and exhibited under a man''s name. When lines between artist and muse are crossed in an intoxicating but perilous affair, Hannah transforms her art into an act of revenge, finding herself caught up in a devastating game of survival.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Laced with queer desire and life-threatening secrets, \u003ci\u003eVenus, Vanishing\u003c\/i\u003e pulses with hedonism and danger as history comes to Hannah''s door, offering a textured and sweeping counter-narrative of Jewish survival, creativity, and resistance.female art collector commissions her to make an elaborate series of nude portraits. But after Hannah finishes the acclaimed Venus paintings, she discovers that her work is being tampered with and exhibited under a man''s name. When lines between artist and muse are crossed in an intoxicating but perilous affair, Hannah transforms her art into an act of revenge, finding herself caught up in a devastating game of survival.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Laced with queer desire and life-threatening secrets, \u003ci\u003eVenus, Vanishing\u003c\/i\u003e pulses with hedonism and danger as history comes to Hannah''s door, offering a textured and sweeping counter-narrative of Jewish survival, creativity, and resistance.female art collector commissions her to make an elaborate series of nude portraits. But after Hannah finishes the acclaimed Venus paintings, she discovers that her work is being tampered with and exhibited under a man''s name. When lines between artist and muse are crossed in an intoxicating but perilous affair, Hannah transforms her art into an act of revenge, finding herself caught up in a devastating game of survival.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Laced with queer desire and life-threatening secrets, \u003ci\u003eVenus, Vanishing\u003c\/i\u003e pulses with hedonism and danger as history comes to Hannah''s door, offering a textured and sweeping counter-narrative of Jewish survival, creativity, and resistance.act of revenge, finding herself caught up in a devastating game of survival.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Laced with queer desire and life-threatening secrets, \u003ci\u003eVenus, Vanishing\u003c\/i\u003e pulses with hedonism and danger as history comes to Hannah''s door, offering a textured and sweeping counter-narrative of Jewish survival, creativity, and resistance.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53450485498129,"sku":"NGR9781250457233","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781250457233.jpg?v=1777628737"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-rebecca-birrell.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}