About

Towner Eastbourne is pleased to present the first institutional exhibition in over a decade by British artist Margaret Mellis (1914-2009), one of the first and last survivors of the group of modernist artists that came together in St Ives, Cornwall in the 1940s.

Modernist Constructs tells the story of Mellis' progression from art student at Edinburgh College of Art, honing her practice under the tutelage of Scottish Colourist Samuel Peploe and in a period of early experiment with collage combined. It also looks at her contemplative, yet playful driftwood constructions that dominated the final twenty years of her life and work, now often seen as the 'culmination' of her practice.