Harriet Bell 'Untitled’
pencil and book cutting collage on paper   .   70 x 100 cm


ENQUIRE ABOUT THIS WORK

Harriet Bell is a British artist born in Turkey in 1950. She has lived and studied in the USA, Jamaica, South America and France, and currently lives in West Cornwall. This work is selected from a series titled ‘That Luminous Body That Care of The Soul’, a collection of intricate, almost forensic, works on large sheets of paper incorporating delicate drawing with collage taken from found books. These ultra sensitive works record a seemingly dream-like, interconnected journey. Rather like a botanist using specimens for scientific analysis, Bell selectively displays her findings, taking us beyond the realms of prosaic understanding of life and, indeed, what lies beyond. The ever-changing cycle of life. Absence, presence, death and decay, growth and metamorphosis all ‘feel’ pertinent when looking at her visions. Her work is multifaceted ranging from sculptural components, to installation, to drawing, made in private and very rarely shown. There is no specific narrative to the work but Bell often ‘borrows’ words and often rearranges those words, which are then cast like seeds. The images that she works from are stored in the details and intuitions of her life, her inner culture. Running from one to another, becoming clarified and whittled down of extraneous material, being forced – in the end – to express the essence of themselves. Her objective is to make work that is completely integrated; each piece to contain it’s meaning within but emanating that meaning as a presence around it. Bell is an artist who remains suspicious of artist’s statements. Feeling that there is a sense that translating the meaning of the work in to the written word distracts from the language that the work itself contains. So her works must be experienced and the results of doing so are profoundly moving and personal. The only words present in the exhibition catalogue for her most recent solo exhibition catalogue were “We all have to leave”, this simple ‘summing up’ leaves little doubt that Bell is an artist who is able to just say it, without having to say much at all, it also gives clear insight in to the preoccupation of her artistic and existential questioning. 

Despite her reclusive nature Harriet Bell’s works have been exhibited internationally, with major works acquired for private and public collections. Bell was a prizewinner at Jacksonville Museum in Florida in 1980, the Halifax Art Festival Merit Award winner in 1980, the Arkansas Art Centre Purchase Award winner in 1984 and the Jacksonville Museum Purchase Award winner in 1986. She was awarded the State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in 1987 and the SECCA/RHR Southeastern Artists Fellowship in 1989. She has exhibited at the North Miami Museum, Jacksonville Art Museum, South Florida Art Museum, Florida and Cantini Musee in Paris, Provincial Museum Haselt in Belgium, Centre d’Art in Barcelona, Museum of Fine Arts in Miami, the Tate St Ives and extensively throughout the USA, UK and Europe. Her work is in number of art collections including the British Museum, the Florida House of Representatives, Florida State University, The Keleia Collection, City of Orlando, Arkansas Art Centre, Jacksonville Art Centre, The Rouse Company, Vero Beach Centre for the Arts, Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, Southern Bell.