John Wells (artist)
John Wells was an artist and maker of relief constructions, associated with the St Ives group.Biography
He was born in London, and trained as a doctor at University College Hospital. He learned to paint at evening classes at Saint Martin's School of Art. From 1936 to 1945, he worked as a General Practitioner for the Isles of Scilly. After the Second World War he decided to pursue a full-time career as an artist. At that time he settled in Newlyn, Cornwall and became closely involved with the renowned artistic community at the nearby town of St. Ives.
He was the co-founder of the Crypt Group and the Penwith Society of Arts. He worked with Barbara Hepworth from 1950 to 1951 and exhibited regularly in London, the provinces and abroad. His work is represented in the Tate Gallery. His works of geometric abstraction were influenced by Gabo, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth.
Wells died on 28 July 2000 on the Penwith peninsula, at the southwest tip of Cornwall.
An exhibition held at the Tate St Ives in 2007, celebrated the centenary of his birth.
