Brigid Peppin
Helen Saunders and her Contribution to Vorticism

Mark Antliff's recent rediscovery of three 'lost' exhibited Vorticist works by Helen Saunders brings to 22 the number of her of her works on paper from c.1913-1916 that are now known to have survived, and makes possible a fuller analysis of her distinctive contribution to Vorticism. Peppin shall look at these and other examples from her Vorticist period in the context of her earlier and later painting practice, and consider what they reveal about her artistic preoccupations and ideas. Peppin shall also compare some of her Vorticist images with those of other members of the group, and address the question of whether Vorticist Composition in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in Madrid, currently attributed to Edward Wadsworth, may in fact be Saunders' only surviving Vorticist oil.


Biography

Brigid Peppin is a cousin of the Vorticist painter Helen Saunders, and responsible for her estate.
MA History of Art, Birkbeck, London University
BA Fine Art (painting with sculpture), Slade School of Fine Art

Career
1994-2004: Senior Lecturer in the History of Art, University of East London
1976-1992: Adjunct Professor (History of Art) on various American University
Study Abroad programs in London
1968-1971: Exhibitions co-organiser at the Arts Lab, Drury Lane, London and at the New Arts Lab, Robert Street, London

Publications
Peppin, Brigid. Helen Saunders, 1885-1963 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1996)
Peppin, Brigid and Micklethwait, Lucy. A Dictionary of British Book Illustrators; the 20th Century (John Murray, 1984)
Peppin, Brigid. Fantasy: British Book Illustration 1880-1960 (Studio Vista, 1974)
Peppin, Brigid. The Thyssen 'Vorticist Composition': a new attribution.in The Burlington Magazine, September 2010 (pp. 590-594)