JOHN CECIL STEPHENSON
AT THE FINE ART SOCIETY
18 October – 8 November 2007
The Fine Art Society will present a major selling exhibition of works by John Cecil Stephenson, a key figure in the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1930s who worked closely with Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.
Forty paintings, all of which have come from Stephenson’s family, will highlight his significant contribution to the Modernist movement in the 1930s, and his pioneering role as one of the first completely abstract English artists. The importance of this shy and modest man has been overshadowed by artists such as Nicholson, who were more confident and ambitious.
He was a contributor to the Modernist manifesto Circle and was a friend of Piet Mondrian, the austere exponent of pure abstraction. The leading critic of the period Sir Herbert Read described Stephenson as “an artist of great talent” and as one of the first to develop a completely abstract style.
Stephenson’s works are in a number of major public collections including the Tate Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Museum and the Arts Council. |
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Bright Triangles, 1938
Gouache, pencil and collage on grey paper
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