John Wells

John Wells was an English painter and printmaker associated with the St Ives School, a group of artists known for their abstract and modernist works inspired by the rugged landscapes and coastal environment of Cornwall.

Born in 1907 in London, Wells initially pursued a career in medicine, studying at University College Hospital. Between 1927 and 1928, he took painting and drawing classes at the St Martin’s School of Art, while completing his medical degree. Wells’s mother was Cornish and the artist started visiting Cornwall in the late 1920s, drawn by its dramatic scenery and the vibrant artistic community that had formed around the town of St Ives.

After World War II, Wells decided to pursue a career as an artist. In 1945, he moved to Newlyn, Cornwall. There, he joined the renowned artistic community at the nearby town of St Ives. Wells’s early works were largely figurative, but as he became more involved with the St Ives artists, his style evolved towards abstraction. He was influenced by his contemporaries Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and, in particular, the Constructivist movement and the ideas of Naum Gabo, which emphasised the use of geometric forms and a focus on materiality and space.

The Cornish landscape and seascape were central themes in Wells’s work. He was fascinated by the natural rhythms and patterns found in the environment, which he often abstracted into geometric shapes and forms. His work, while modernist, retained a deep connection to the natural world, capturing the essence of the landscape through abstraction.

Throughout his career, Wells remained a central figure in the St Ives art scene, contributing to its reputation as one of the most important centres of modern British art. His work was exhibited widely, both in the UK and internationally. Wells died in 2000 in Cornwall. In 2007 Tate St Ives held an exhibition in honour of the centenary of the artist’s birth.