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4. Boat c.1942
Gouache & collage on paper
mounted on board
73/4 x 117/8 ins 19.5 x 30 cms
Wells visited Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth at Carbis Bay
near St Ives in the spring of 1940 where he was introduced to Naum
Gabo. He was deeply impressed by Gabo’s constructivist ideas and
immediately fashioned a three dimensional response that Gabo
later described to Nicholson as ‘the perfect first effort in spatial
construction’. The present example is an important example of
Wells exploring tension and balance in space through the use of a
series of collaged geometric shapes interconnected within a linear
structure and with the central area of radiating lines.
The coloured concentric circles in each shape were created
with a small brass turntable, a device used by Wells’ father to make
microscope slides, and feature in Wells’ sole surviving relief
construction of the period in the Tate collection.
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