Sussex Modernism

Sussex Modernism looks at how artists and writers harnessed the landscapes, cultures and histories of their locations to reimagine how art should be made and life lived.

Hope Wolf explores a breadth of work by over 70 artists associated with different modernist movements, who either visited, or resided in Sussex. Well-known figures, including Virginia Woolf, Jacob Epstein, David Jones, Gluck, Edward Burra and Lee Miller, are joined by countercultural artists of the 1960s-1980s, women artists whose power was regional rather than national, as well as the voices of modernism’s opponents. Offering a new history of modernism, this book intertwines literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, film, photography, textiles, music and domestic decoration across a period of over 100 years. Revealing how artists drew on their environments to promote psychic and social change, Sussex Modernism is a book of jostling perspectives on art, place and politics.