Painting II

Stephenson was one of the best-known and most committed Modernist artists working in Britain during the 1930s. He lived at the Mall Studios in Hampstead where the modernist movement in Britain was focused, counting Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and Mondrian among his neighbours. The international modernism movement in Britain reached its zenith in 1937, the year the Circle book was published and the related Circle exhibition took place at the London Gallery. Painting II may well have featured in the Circle exhibition and shows a leading British artist adopting and adapting the style of European constructivism.