Curves and Circles
- Artist: Paule Vézelay
- Date: 1930
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 920 x 730 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is “Curves and Circles” by Paule Vézelay. Painted in 1930, it’s an oil on canvas that measures just over a meter wide and a little under 730 mm tall. Vézelay, born Marjorie Watson‑Williams, moved to Paris in the 1920s and adopted a French name to feel closer to that artistic scene. She was one of the first British artists to embrace pure abstraction, and this work shows her transition from figurative to fully non‑representational forms.
The canvas is a riot of elegant, twisting curves that seem to glide across a cloud‑like background, as if the lines themselves were floating in the sky. The shapes are rounded and calligraphic, evoking a sense of movement and atmosphere rather than a concrete subject. Critics have noted that the piece carries a hint of surrealist energy—she was included in a 1930 Surrealist group show in Amsterdam and received a preface from poet Robert Desnos. This work captures that early experimental spirit, balancing pure geometry with a poetic, airy feel.
See it in person
Curves and Circles is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
