Private & Public: Finding the Modern British Garden

This catalogue examines the ways in which Modern British artists of the interwar period engaged with private and public spaces. The publication begins by exploring the private realms of artists, as many retreated to planting and painting their own gardens in the wake of the First World War. But while some withdrew, other artists sought pleasure and escapism, and amidst the rise of new technologies and popular entertainment, public gardens became arenas for a modern experience which they strove to capture. Moreover, this catalogue explores the blurring of boundaries between private and public spaces, as the car and other modes of transport opened up areas of the countryside beyond the orbit of the railways. And then there were the houses and gardens of estates such as Garsington Manor brought into the public eye by artists who attended the gatherings of the great chatelaine and salonniere, Lady Ottoline Morrell. So perhaps these worlds of private and public were not mutually exclusive, after all.