Background
Graham Bell was born on November 21, 1910 in Durban, South Africa. He was the son Frank Graham Bell, a British mining engineer, and Marjorie (Hewitt) Bell.
Graham Bell was born on November 21, 1910 in Durban, South Africa. He was the son Frank Graham Bell, a British mining engineer, and Marjorie (Hewitt) Bell.
Graham Bell studied at the Durban Art School. In 1931, he moved to England and became a pupil of Duncan Grant.
In 1931, Graham held his first solo exhibition at the City Hall in Durban. The same year, he moved to Britain, where he got acquainted with William Coldstream. In 1934, the painter presented his non-representational works at the exhibition of Objective Abstractions at the Zwemmer Gallery.
During the period from 1934 to 1937, Bell abandoned painting and started to work as a journalist. He contributed to the New Statesman, political and cultural magazine, and some time later became its arts editor.
Some time later, Bell started to paint again and in 1937 he co-founded the Euston Road School. The programme of the school was largely based on a political and social intention of creating a widely understandable and socially relevant art.
In 1938, Bell's works were exhibited in a mixed show, along with paintings by Victor Pasmore, Thomas Carr, Claude Rogers, William Coldstream and Geoffrey Tibble. The same year, Bell worked for Mass Observation in Bolton, with Humphrey Spender, who was a photographer.
In 1939, Bell published the pamphlet, The Artist And His Public, and wrote the Plan for Artists with Kenneth Clark, urging patronage for contemporary artists. As a result, several of his contemporaries were able to become artists, whose careers might have ended because of financial necessity.
During World War II, Graham served in Royal Air Force and was trained as a pilot.
Approximately in 1940, he painted some watercolors of Ewenny Priory and other sites in Glamorgan. Two years later, in 1942, Bell's works were exhibited along with paintings by Anthony Devas, Thomas Carr and Lawrence Gowing.
Graham Bell was married to Anne Bilbrough, an actress. The couple had a daughter, Harriet Graham Bell.