Exercise in Colour and Form No.9, 1963, continues Willats’ dematerialisation of the building, distilling it into an abstract structure using in this instance more muted colours. At the same time it introduces the important idea of connecting points – corridor or conduit like forms that reach to the left- and right-hand edges of the painting recalling the mid-twentieth-century idea of the walkway above street level.

Stephen Willats was born in 1943 in London, where he continues to live and work. Recent solo institutional exhibitions include Languages of Dissent at Migros Museum, Zürich (2019). His work has also recently been featured in the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2019– 2020), Still Undead: Popular Culture in Britain Beyond the Bauhaus at Nottingham Contemporary (2019–2020), Pushing Paper: Contemporary Drawing from 1970 to Now at the British Museum (2019–2020), Objects of Wonder, British Sculpture 1950s–Present, featuring works from the Tate collection, at the PalaisPopulaire, Berlin (2019).