A substantial oil on canvas by British painter and sculptor John Mitchell (1943–2014), whose work explored the expressive possibilities of geometry, proportion and colour.
Mitchell established a significant exhibition career in Britain and continental Europe, with solo exhibitions at Camden Arts Centre, London, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, and Galerie Swart, Amsterdam. He exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery in 1980, and his work was included in the Arts Council/South Bank Centre exhibition The Presence of Painting: Aspects of British Abstraction 1957–1988. A respected teacher alongside his own practice, he held influential posts at Stourbridge, Birmingham and Cardiff, and a Gregory Fellowship at Leeds University.
While at Leeds, Mitchell invited the American minimalist sculptor Carl Andre to lecture, hosting him at his home during the visit. Their friendship offers a personal connection to the wider international exploration of geometry, repetition and sculptural form—concerns that Mitchell developed through a distinctive language of his own.
Painted around 1984, Square Pyramid, Capped explores the geometric forms that would feature in his 1987 Ikon exhibition, Cones, Pyramids, Piers & Projections. A truncated pyramid rises across a deep oxide-red field, its violet face divided by dark horizontal lines. These repeated bands give it a stepped, architectural rhythm, drawing the eye towards its flattened summit. The adjoining face almost disappears into the red ground, its diagonal divisions suggesting a structure emerging from the surrounding colour.
A broad violet border encloses the composition, echoing the pyramid and containing its assertive perspective within the rectangle of the canvas. Visible brushwork and shifting densities of pigment soften the precision of the drawing. The geometry is carefully measured; the paint retains the movement of the hand.
This balance gives the painting its particular character: architectural weight, rich colour and a surface that rewards closer looking. The pyramid appears solid at one moment and begins to dissolve into intersecting planes at the next. At more than a metre wide, it has considerable presence, with enough complexity to sustain attention well beyond its first impression.
Condition
Very good condition.
Medium
Oil on canvas, c.1984.
Dimensions
Height 99 cm × width 123 cm.
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