John Wells (1907-2000)

Wells had his first solo exhibition in London at Waddington Galleries in 1960. Following the success of the show, Waddington Galleries included Wells in a group exhibition in 1962 and gave him another one-person show in 1964. The present work is typical of the paintings included in this exhibition. At this time, Wells became less attracted to reflecting landscape in his work and he returned to a strict interest in geometrical, mathematical structures comprising flatly coloured rectangles with subtle colour harmonies. Wells described these works to Ben Nicholson as 'rectangular "hard edge" things ... Pop Art leaves me cold. Although I often get led astray, I always want to return to the more formal, constructional or structurist type of work' (see Exhibition Catalogue, John Wells, The Fragile Cell, Tate St Ives, 1998, p. 59).

See also lot 141.