In 1926, Paule Vézelay invented herself. Born Marjorie Watson-Williams in Bristol, she moved to Paris and became the artist she had always imagined being, brand new name and all. She thrived at the centre of Paris’s swirling avant-garde currents, quickly building a rich community for herself among the hotbed of artistic radicalism and experimentation. She exhibited regularly and found solace in her friendships. But when she returned to Britain at the onset of the second world war, she found herself out of step with its art world and found neither the fame nor the success she had been working towards in Paris.
The RWA in Bristol has brought Vézelay home, hosting the largest exhibition of her work since her death in 1984 at the age of 91. It is only two rooms, but it’s packed with paintings, prints, sculpture, textiles, letters and photographs from her own collection. Moving chronologically through her life and work, the show gives a powerful sense of Vézelay’s fierce, prickly personality.
