Christopher Wood

'A rhythmic energy pulses through these pictures' - The Times

The first fully illustrated account of the life and work of English painter Christopher Wood 

This exhibition catalogue accompanies a 2016 show at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK and is the first fully illustrated account of the life and work of English painter Christopher Wood (1901-30). Wood was an important and influential figure in the British art world during the 1920s. 

The volume explores the life and art of a turbulent young painter as he navigated a path between the representational painting of the 1920s and the new style of abstraction of the following decade. Along with Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Wood developed a self-consciously unsophisticated style inspired in part by the untrained Cornish artist Alfred Wallis. However his understanding of naïve art was also uniquely influenced by his early exposure to the work of modernists in France such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh, who all drew upon Non-Western art and so-called ‘primitive' cultures.

This authoritative work, which includes over 150 images, provides extensive visual analysis of individual paintings, set designs and drawings created by Wood in both Britain and France so bringing fresh perspective to his unique artistic development on both sides of the Channel. 

This monograph will appeal to readers who are yet to encounter Wood’s work, as well as collectors and enthusiasts.