John Wells 1907 - 2000

John Wells was born in London in 1907 and worked as a doctor on the Isles of Scilly between 1936 and 1945. He studied art informally, attending evening classes at St Martins School of Art (1927-8) and briefly attended Stanhope Forbes Newlyn School of Painting. Wells was a founder member of the Crypt Group, so called because they exhibited in the crypt of the Mariners Church in St Ives. From 1946 to 1948 he exhibited alongside Bryan Wynter, Peter Lanyon, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Sven Berlin, Guido Morris, Patrick Heron, Adrian Ryan, David Haughton and Kit Barker. Wells made sculpture and paintings throughout his career that adhered to Gabo's Constructivist ideals while reflecting his Cornish environment. He died in 2000 in Newlyn, Cornwall.

works in the collection - 3

PAC/005

Wells, a doctor on the Isles of Scilly during the war, was encouraged to become a practicing artist by Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo - key figures in British Constructivism then living in Carbis Bay, Cornwall.

Landscape Head, 1950


PAC/006

Wells method of selectively revealing layers of underpainting was inherited from Ben Nicholson, giving his ambiguous landscape compositions a geological dimension. During the 1950s Peter Lanyon encouraged Wells to explore the landscape of West Penwith and temper his desire for formal structure with a more romantic response to the landscape.

Landscape (Mineral), 1953


PAC/007

Flight had been a key theme for Wells since the late 1940s and many of his images are based upon the flight patterns of seabirds or planes. Wells fascination with flight sprang principally from a Constructivist interest in space. Wells post-war association with Peter Lanyon was instrumental in the increased presence of landscape in his work, but by 1960 he had abandoned representation and returned to geometric abstraction.

Landscape and Flight Forms, 1958