About Julian Bell

Photo: Mark Anthony Fox

Julian Bell is a painter and art writer who has long been based in Lewes. His books include What is Painting? and Vincent van Gogh, and he often contributes to the London Review of Books and New York Review of Books

1952 Born in London

1970-73 BA in English Literature, Magdalen College, Oxford.

1973-74 City & Guilds of London Art School

1974 Began taking commissions for portraits, landscapes, architectural views, pub signs, murals, book illustrations etc

1990 Started writing about painting for Modern Painters, TLS, LRB, NYRB, etc

1994 Bonnard, published by Phaidon

1997-2001 Lecturer and tutor at Goldsmiths’ College, London

1999 What is Painting ? (1st Edition), published by Thames & Hudson

1999-2008 Lecturer and tutor at City & Guilds of London Art School

2000 500 Self Portraits, published by Phaidon

2007 Mirror of the World: A New History of Art, published by Thames & Hudson

2015 Genesis, exhibition of series of 37 paintings; published as book by St Anne’s Galleries

2015 The Art Of Tom Hammick, published by Lund Humphries

2015 Vincent van Gogh: A Power Seething, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

2017 What Is Painting ? (2nd Edition), published by Thames & Hudson

2019 Editor of Ways of Drawing, published by Thames & Hudson

2023 Natural Light, published by Thames & Hudson