Bell, Clive

Bell, Clive (1881-1964), British writer on art theory, politics, and wider cultural issues. He ranks as one of the most significant British promoters of Modernism in the early 20th century. Born in East Shefford, Berkshire, Bell read history at Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he met Thoby Stephens, whose sister Vanessa he was to marry in 1907. Stephens' house in Gordon Square, London, was the site of the first meetings of the Bloomsbury Group, in which Bell played an important role.

Among his various activities, Bell helped Roger Fry to expose the British public to modern art through the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition of 1912. His emphasis on the importance of artistic form, as opposed to content, was powerfully expressed in works such as Art (1914) and was extremely influential on later critics. He also developed his political ideas, a mixture of patrician detachment and left-wing zeal, in numerous books and articles.