Sunday, March 9, 2014

Mid-Century

Construction
1940-41

Marine Construction
1941

Relief Construction
1941

John Wells (1907-2000) was a London medical student in the late 1920s when he first began to meet some of the English painters and sculptors gathered around St. Ives in Cornwall. From the mid-thirties until the end of World War II, Wells worked as "GP for the Scilly Isles"  while staying in contact with artist friends on the mainland. After the War he gave up medicine and joined them as a full-time St Ives artist.

Profiles
1949

Aspiring Forms
1950

Sea Bird Forms
1951

Painting
1956

Brimstone Moth Variation
1960

Painting
1962
Reproductions are from collections at the Tate Gallery. Individual pieces by John Wells  have been seen in group exhibitions, but in the period since his death fifteen years ago there have been no solo museum shows. It is curious how someone can become a museum-worthy artist and at the same time be quietly regarded as an also-ran. Available for revival, all the same.