Mainie Jellett 1897-1944

Executed circa 1929.  Jellett had studied with both Andre Lhote and Albert Gleizes in the early 1920s and their influence is apparent in the combination of bold colour and abstract form in the present work.  The curved forms are closely related to the Jellett's series of cubist works based on the Mother and Child theme and also demonstrate her knowledge of Gleizes's principal of 'translation' and 'rotation'. During the 1920s, she developed compositions from those with a single element rotated on a single axis to more complex compositions with rotations of seven and eight elements.