Full Description
Published to coincide with the exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Christopher Wood: In Love offers an intimate and revelatory encounter with one of Britain’s most compelling modern artists. Drawing on new research and previously unpublished works from private collections, the book traces Wood’s brief yet incandescent career through the relationships, places and creative exchanges that shaped his art. Structured in a series of thematic ‘acts’, it moves from London and Paris to the Mediterranean and Brittany, weaving together painting, drawing, stage design and archival material to illuminate Wood’s passionate devotion to both art and life. Six newly commissioned essays explore questions of love, performance and sexuality in the early twentieth century, situating Wood within an international avant‑garde network that included Jean Cocteau, Serge Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. Beautifully designed and richly illustrated, this publication is an essential contribution to Christopher Wood scholarship and a vital companion to a vibrant moment in British modernism.
About the Author
Megan Breckell is Curatorial Assistant at Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge, working on the gallery’s exhibition programme. She gained a BA in History of Art from the University of Warwick and an MA in Art History and Museum Curating from the University of Sussex. Megan has previously worked at The Charleston Trust within the Exhibitions Team and Visitor Services, as well as volunteering at various museum and heritage organisations whilst studying, with a focus on projects relating to social history though fashion and dress. Dr Inga Fraser is a curator and art historian. She is Senior Curator at Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge. Prior to joining Kettle's Yard, she worked as a freelance Curator at Tate Britain on the current exhibition, Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990. Dr Matt Houlbrook, is Professor of Cultural History in the Department of History, University of Birmingham, UK, teaching on twentieth century Britain with a focus on histories of sexuality, gender and the politics of cultural life. Houlbrook contributed to and co-edited Men and Masculinities in Modern Britain: A History for the Present (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2024), and published Prince of Tricksters: The Incredible True Story of Netley Lucas, Gentleman Crook, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016). Aïcha Mehrez is a curator, writer and researcher and is currently undertaking a PHD with Tate and University of Leicester exploring curatorial methodologies of care and harm in museums in addressing colonial and imperial connections. Mehrex also teaches on MA Curating Apprenticeship at University of Teesside/MIMA and is an editor for the University of Leicester’s Museological Review. Dr Sophie Oliver is Senior Lecturer, Modernism in the Department of English at the University of Liverpool, UK., teaching on Fin de Siècle and Modernist literature, and literature and feminisms. Oliver’s book A Women’s history: modernism told through clothes, will be published by Manchester University Press in 2026. Oliver's writing on literary modernisms has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Modernism/Modernity, Journal of Modern Periodical Studies. Professor Alistair O’Neill is a fashion historian, curator and Professor of Fashion History and Theory at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London). O’Neill’s publications include Faye Toogood: Drawing, Material, Sculpture, Landscape (London, Phaidon, 2023), Exploding Fashion: Making, Unmaking and Remaking Twentieth-Century Fashion, (Belgium, Lannoo Publishers, 2021), London: After Fashion (London, Reaktion Books, 2007), and has contributed articles to journals including; Aperture, Photography and Culture, Visual Culture in Britain. Dr Gregory Salter is Associate Professor in History of Art and Head of Department for Art History, Curating and Visual Studies at the University of Birmingham, teaching on BA History of Art, MA History of Art and MA Art History and Curating. Salter's book Art and Masculinity in Post-War Britain: Reconstructing Home, was published in 2019 by Routledge and helped to shape the 2022 exhibition Postwar Modern: New Art in Britain 1945-1965, at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK.
