§ JOHN WELLS (BRITISH 1907-2000) DANCER, 1952 artist's proof, signed, inscribed and dated in pencil in the margin, engraving (20cm x 13.5cm (7.9in x 5.4in)) Footnote: Note: Two different impressions/states of this print dated to 1950 are in the British Museum. John Wells and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham shared a particular friendship. Both had benefited from the mentorship of Ben Nicholson who, of the many artists that gathered in St Ives, seemed to have had a particular interest in Barns-Graham’s work. She and Wells had also been significantly influenced by the work of Naum Gabo, a leading figure in Russian Constructivism who, as an emigrant during the War, followed his friends Nicholson and Hepworth to St Ives, playing a key role in the modernist developments that took place. This impact was seen in the pair's artistic practices which shared an affinity with an analytical, at times scientific approach to abstraction. As a result there is often something more linear and hard-edged to their output than some of their more expressionistic peers: a theory of the landscape and its forms as much as a representation of it.