MODERN MADE: Modern Art, Design & Studio Ceramics (579) Thu, 14th Nov 2019, Noho Studios, Viewing Times: Viewing at Noho Studios, 48 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 7QA Tues 12 November 10am - 5pm Wed 13 November 10am - 5pm Morning of the sale 10am - 12pm Lot 231

Estimate: £300 - £500 + Fees DENIS MITCHELL, AND INTEREST COLLECTION OF EIGHT POSTCARDS Including four examples dated from 1950 sent from Venice by Nicholson and Hepworth to Denis Mitchell, and four examples from later in the 1950s Each postcard 9.5cm x 14.5cm (3.75in x 5.75in), under two mounts, unframed Note: Barbara Hepworth was in Venice in 1950 representing Britain at the Biennale, the year before Hepworth and Nicholson separated. Provenance: From the Estate of an important St. Ives’s artist Note: ST. IVES Nestled along the coast of West , St Ives is a fishing town that quickly became a centre for modern and abstract developments in British art. A cultural and artistic haven since the late 1800s, St Ives has been known to attract and enchant artists from across the world. In 1939, sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth and then husband, artist Ben Nicholson, settled in St Ives and established a base for the abstract, avant-garde movement in Britain. With the end of World War II, a new generation of artists began to emerge, led by Hepworth and Nicholson. These artists had a shared interest in abstraction and a deep fascination with the coastal landscape of West Cornwall. Many used the shapes, forms, and colours of the fishing town as a source of inspiration in their work. This forward- thinking collective of artists, which included , Roger Hilton, W. Barns-Graham , and Patrick Heron, became known as the ‘’. Denis Mitchell, an English abstract sculptor, was one of the artists who became an active member in this artistic community following WWII. From 1949-59, he acted as Hepworth’s assistant and personally worked on many of her sculptures. It was during this decade that Mitchell developed an interest in the purity of form and the manipulation of space. His sculptures, such as the gravity-defying Carn Galver II, 1968 (Lot 236) and the sleek Roseveor, 1985 (Lot 238), show a strong understanding of balance, line, movement and light. Mitchell’s works, although abstract in form, remain rooted in the landscape of St Ives. Working primarily in bronze and wood, he often hand carved his works and hand finished his bronzes. Mitchell placed great emphasis on texture and material in the design and execution of his sculptures. Other notable British abstract artists with strong involvement in the St Ives School were Sir Terence (Terry) Frost R.A. and Breon O’Casey. began his artistic career in his 30s, after befriending English painter while in captivity at a Bavarian prison camp during WWII. Frost attended several different art schools upon his return to and spent a year in St Ives, before holding his first solo show there in 1947. He continued to exhibit in St Ives over the years and settled there in 1951, working as an assistant to Barbara Hepworth. It was during this time that he developed and refined his distinctively vibrant, geometric abstract style, which typically involved colourful patterns of overlapping squares, rectangles and half-circles, as evident in his works Sun and Boat (Kemp 135), circa 1992-1996 (Lot 228), Timberaine E (Kemp 207e), 2000-01 (Lot 271) and The Island, 1950 (Lot 232). Breon O’Casey was another St Ives artist who worked with both Denis Mitchell and Barbara Hepworth, and found inspiration in the Cornish light, colour and landscape. O’Casey moved to St Ives in the 1950s and lived in Cornwall until his death in 2011. He began as an apprentice for Mitchell but quickly moved on to assist Hepworth, working part-time in her studio alongside Terry Frost. In 1962, O’Casey began experimenting with his own pictorial vocabulary of geometric form. Like Frost, he painted in a uniquely abstract manner, capturing the world around him through a series of circles, triangles and squares, like that in his oil painting Red Sun (Lot 237). The physical, cultural and social landscape of St Ives had a profound impact on these artists, and ultimately encouraged a new abstract, modern art movement in Britain. Lyon & Turnbull are honoured to offer this diverse range of artworks from the zenith of the St Ives School.