In 1925, the artists Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious moved to the village of Great Bardfield in the countryside of Essex, England. Over time, other artists came to the village, forming a community of artists and designers that remains active today. In the 1950s, these artists, including Bawden, Ravilious, John Aldridge, Michael Rothenstein, and Marianne Straub, among others, held now-famous "open house" exhibitions, displaying their modernist works to the public in their own homes. These informal shows brought acclaim to the artists, and also brought thousands of visitors to the quaint...