Paule Vézelay at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol: Arts Intel Report

The artist Paule Vézelay didn’t grow up in a continental or artistic household. She was born Marjorie Watson-Williams in Bristol, England, in 1892, and her father was a pioneering surgeon. In 1926, when she moved to Paris, Marjorie changed her name for what she said were “purely aesthetic reasons.” Soon her friends grew to include Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Alexander Calder, and Marlow Moss. Vézelay began to work with the Abstraction–Création group, but when war broke out she returned to London, where she focused on abstract painting, reliefs, and textile design. She died in 1984, at 102. This exhibition, the largest solo show of Vézelay’s work in over 40 years, presents paintings, prints, sculptures, and textiles along with archival items. —Elena Clavarino