Exhibitions at the Fry Art Gallery

Women of Bardfield

The exhibition is showing for the first time the women artists also working there; mostly the wives of the better known artists and some women who made a career of their own. There are wood engravings, box constructions and paintings by Tirzah Ravilious, oils paintings and pots by Charlotte Bawden, and remarkable marbled papers by both artists, often working together at the kitchen table. Sheila Robinson invented the cardboard cut and there are a number of these together with an unpublished book Seven Dancing Princesses. Lucy, the first wife of John Aldridge, was a rag rug maker and one of her pieces is on show together with a portrait of her at her work. Marianne Straub had a distinguished career in woven textiles and there are examples on display. Many people will have sat on her work while riding on London Transport's buses or Underground trains.

Besides all this work these women artists and wives were remarkable for the richness of the decorations of their own homes- a quality which lives on in photographs at the time, and the tradition of decorating interiors with interesting object d'art, handicrafts, linocut wallpapers and found objects.

Fry Family Collection

Looking at Trees

Richard Bawden