An important Modern British post-war artist, Bell made his reputation as a leading member of the younger generation of St. Ives artists who established British art on the world stage. Bell's work has constantly challenged traditional ideas about the role of painting. In 1960 he started to experiment with shaped canvases, focusing on the interaction between three-dimensional form and his two-dimensional brush strokes. His work now owes a lot to sculpture with the shaped contours activating and reacting to the spaces in which they are placed. These canvases are no longer static or neutral objects on which to paint, they have a character of their own and a new dialogue is possible between their animated form and Bell's painted marks.