Winifred Gill: A Bloomsbury Pioneer

This display will spotlight the artist Winifred Gill (1891-1981), through works held in the Courtauld’s collection. Although a gifted artist and a central figure at Roger Fry’s avant-garde Omega Workshops, Gill’s contributions have since remained largely overlooked. She studied at the Slade before joining the Workshops as a designer, maker and, for a time, business manager. On display will be a number of Gill’s inventive toy designs for the Omega Workshops, as well as a remarkable still life painting made around this time that is deeply characteristic of the Bloomsbury style in its bold response to colour and form. Later prints will show how Gill’s style developed in the 1920s while working as a teacher of arts and crafts in the pioneering Bristol and Manchester University Settlements. Sketchbooks and printing materials will offer a deeper understanding of her practice.