The Artist
Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives, where acquired by the present owner, 29th March 1993

Unexamined out of frame. Stable card, there is very slight scuffing to all four corners. There is slight staining and discolouration to the areas of white applied paper, as well as some further very slight adhesive residue visible, in keeping with the nature of the artist's technique. There is very slight ware to some of the fine white lines just behind the thread, only visible on very close inspection. This excepting the work appears to be in excellent overall condition. Housed behind glass, float-mounted within a thick white wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Collage is an important work which demonstrates Well’s response to the theories of constructivist art which he encountered through his friendship with Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and particularly Naum Gabo.   In this work, Wells employs collage to explore the balance and tensions generated by connected forms in space.  The round circles are ingeniously created through the use of a small brass turntable for making microscope slides.  There is a sense of captured movement in the uneasy balance of the composition: the larger collaged circle balances precariously on the square as if about to topple, but is held taught by the tension created through the gouache and stringed lines.

Well’s use of string and collage on a plain background prefigures his relief works of the same period such as Relief Construction No. 1, 1941, (Tate, London) and was a development from his three dimensional constructions of the early 1940s, for example Construction, 1940/1 (The Estate of the Aritst). These constructions were inspired by Gabo’ 🌱who Wells first met in 1940 and who was to continue 🐠as an influential figure throughout his career.