Bath Society of Artists - St Ives: the Art and the Artists

For twenty-five years, the small town of St Ives in west Cornwall was one of the leading places in the world for the production of avant-garde art. Chris Stephens, a leading authority on 20th-century British art, will explore the position of the St Ives School in the history of modernist art from the 1930s through to the 1960s, and on to the opening of Tate St Ives.
The story of St Ives and the artists who lived and worked there has captured the imagination of art lovers around the world for many years. Stephens will tell the story of this extraordinary artistic group and its legacy, exploring the main personalities and ideas behind the movement, focusing in particular on the ways artists engaged with nature, the landscape and the local community. Stephens will also talk about how their work is situated alongside that of international contemporaries, emphasising St Ives’ important origins in the turbulent and revolutionary post-war art world.