Arthur Clive Heward Bell

Clive Bell (1881–1964), born Arthur Clive Heward Bell, was a British formalist art critic and aesthetician and a central member of the Bloomsbury Group. In Art (1914) he put forward the theory of "significant form," arguing that combinations of line and colour can directly arouse aesthetic emotion—a view that had a lasting influence on modern art criticism. Together with Roger Fry he helped promote Post-Impressionist painting in Britain. His other works include Since Cézanne and Pot-Boilers, and three of his books are held in this collection. Public information is limited; his writing is known for clear argumentation and for its focus on the relationship between form and aesthetic experience.