Sussex Modernism

A look 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.