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PROPERTY FORMERLY FROM THE PETER STUYVESANT FOUNDATION SOLD TO BENEFIT AN ENDOWMENT FUND FOR STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, LONDON 'The Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Collection represents a pioneering approach to using art in a factory setting to inspire workers by transforming their surroundings'. This was the concept of the Collection’s founder, Alexander Orlow (1918-2009), whose great innovation was to change the context in which art is appreciated. In 1960 Orlow invited 13 artists from 13 different European countries to create paintings for the production hall in the Turmac Tobacco Company in the Netherlands. The theme he chose was “Joie de Vivre” and he specified that the works were to be large in size with vivid colours and shapes, powerful enough to stand out in the large factory halls. While the initial responses of employees ranged from surprise to disbelief, they soon came to enjoy the enhancement to their workplace and Orlow made the serendipitous discovery that productivity actually increased. In Britain the approach was slightly different. The Foundation had two main aims: to offer encouragement to artists in the most direct way by purchase of work - and to form a collection representative of its period in British art that would enrich the experience of the public. The involvement of The Peter Stuyvesant Foundation in the British art scene started with their sponsorship of The New Generation exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1964. They were associated with the Basildon-based Carreras Tobacco Factory that was built in 1959-60. In 1979, the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation loaned their collection to the Basildon Arts Trust and these were subsequently gifted to them outright in 1984, the same year the Carreras factory was closed down. The Basildon Arts Trust, has recently merged with The Foundation for Essex Arts (Ltd) and this is the first time the following works (lots 165, 166 and 173) have been offered for sale since they were purchased by The Peter Stuyvesant Foundation.

John Wells (1907-2000)

Involute No. 6

Details

John Wells (1907-2000)
Involute No. 6
signed, inscribed and dated '62/2/INVOLUTE. No 6./John Wells. 1962./ANCHOR STUDIO/TREWARVENETH STREET/NEWLYN/W. CORNWALL.' (on the reverse)
oil on board
47 ¾ x 24 in. (121.5 x 61 cm.)

Provenance

with Waddington Galleries, London, where purchased by the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, May 1965, and by whom gifted to the Basildon Arts Trust, 1984.

Literature

A. Bowness (intro.), exhibition catalogue, Recent British Painting: Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Collection, London, Tate Gallery, 1967, pp. 17, 42, 43, no. 10, illustrated.

Exhibited

London, Waddington Galleries, John Wells, September 1964, no. 29.
Nottingham, Castle Museum, 1966-67, catalogue not traced.
London, Tate Gallery, Recent British Painting: Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Collection, November - December 1967, no. 10.
Adelaide, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Festival of Arts, Recent British Painting (Sponsored by The Peter Stuyvesant Trust), March 1970, no. 10: this exhibition travelled to Auckland, Art Gallery, August - September 1971.
The Basildon Arts Trust, 1979-1984, on loan.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Lot Essay

'Pure curves and geometric figures give me great pleasure for their own sake (Plato). Also intuitively and via D'Arcy Thompson, one finds them as the structural basis of all organic and inorganic nature and of man's best constructions, especially aircraft. Involute was one of a number of dialogues between this particular curve and the way I was painting'

(The artist quoted in A. Bowness (intro.), exhibition catalogue, Recent British Painting: Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Collection, London, Tate Gallery, 1967, p. 17)

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