Christopher Wood

Christopher Wood played a pivotal role in the development of modernism in Britain in the 1920s. Admired by such giants as Picasso and Cocteau, he was acclaimed as one of the leading painters of his generation. His reputation is justified by paintings of Cornwall and Brittany made in the final two years of his life. These works achieve a compelling poetic intensity, yet it remains difficult to separate Wood's achievement from the legend that surrounded the artist after his dramatic suicide at the age of twenty-nine." "As well as exploring Wood's career and art in detail, Virginia Button traces the development of a glamorous narrative of tragic genius in the decades following his death. She discusses the types of masculinity that gained currency in the inter-war years, showing how Wood came to be seen as emblematic of a doomed generation. Virginia Button is a writer and curator based in Cornwall, and the author of The Turner Prize.