The Charleston Trust has a second home in the charming town of Lewes, in East Sussex. Charleston, the modernist residence and workspace of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, served as a meeting place for the Bloomsbury group, the most avant-garde writers, artists, and intellectuals of the 20th century. Today it continues to inspire artists and designers. Kim Jones is Vice President, and in 2023, the fashion designers honoured Charleston through the Dior Homme Summer collection.

It has always been a place where art and experimental concepts came together to envision society and freedom in new ways. The Firle site hosts the historical house and adjacent modern gallery. The recently-opened Lewes location (over a year ago) stages a strong programme of temporary exhibitions all-year long.

On view in Lewes until 2nd March 2025 is Collecting Modernism: Pablo Picasso to Winifred Nicholson, an exhibition bringing together over 80 paintings that were passed between the homes of Eddy Sackville-West, Eardley Knollys, and Mattei Radev. At the heart of this exhibition is the network of relationships between its three protagonists.

British music critic and novelist Edward Charles Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville served in the House of Lords in his latter years. He founded a male salon, entertaining at the weekends a constellation of friends from the worlds of books and music, with the literary critic Raymond Mortimer. From 1936 and 1944, Eardley Knollys and his boyfriend Frank Coombs owned and ran one of the most fashionable contemporary art galleries in London. They purchased many works by the artists they exhibited at The Storran Gallery, including Amedeo Modigliani, Duncan Grant and Frances Hodgkins. After a varied career, Knollys started painting in his fifties. Mattei Radev, was a Bulgarian immigrant, who worked as a picture framer and art collector when he got to London, after suffering poverty and hardship.

This important show tells the tale of how a modern art collection came to be and how these three collectors celebrated their Queer identity. It provides a unique opportunity to view works by some of the most significant painters of the 20th century, such as Graham Sutherland, Winifred Nicholson, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro and important Bloomsbury characters including Duncan Grant, Roger Fry, and Vanessa Bell among many others. The resilience of the three men and their love safeguarded the art they cherished. Beyond its content and the unity of all these artworks, this is perhaps the force of this remarkable collection.

In the 20th century, Charleston evolved from a practical living place to a private sanctuary where people could express their creativity and be true to themselves. It also reflected the identities and experiences of the people who lived there. This is especially true in Charleston and the residences where what is now known as “The Radev Collection” was started, and developed.

Nathaniel Hepburn, Director of Charleston, says: “We are thrilled to bring such a renowned collection to our new cultural centre, Charleston in Lewes. Generously loaned from The Radev Collection, visitors will be able to see rare works from icons of modernism, including Pablo Picasso and Winifred Nicholson.”

Highlights include a vibrant oil on canvas by Russian Expressionist Alexei Jawlensky in which he explored the power of nature, an erotic male nude by Duncan Grant and a small oil on board by Christopher Wood influenced by his travels to Europe. It’s one of the must-see exhibitions of the season.

Image: Duncan Grant, Seated male nude from behind, c.1938. Photograph: © Estate of Duncan Grant. All rights reserved, DACS 2024. The Radev Collection.