Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, et al. Women Only Works on Paper. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p. 81.

It is likely that this collage, White, Red and Blue Circles in Square, dates to the late 1930s when Kathleen Guth- rie met John Cecil Stephenson (1889-1965), whom she married in 1941. The influence of the Circle group – whose activities centred on the Mall Studios where the couple lived – can be seen in Guthrie’s design. Although Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth moved to Cornwall in 1939, Henry Moore replaced them as Guthrie’s immediate neighbour (taking over the lease at no. 7 Mall Studios) and Piet Mondrian became a regular visitor, living during most of the year in nearby Parkhill Road. Alexander Calder was also a frequent guest and one of his mobiles, acquired by the pair, remained hanging in their space.

Guthrie was one of the most gifted silk screen printmakers of her generation. In what might be termed a collaboration, either shortly before or after the death of Stephenson, she reproduced, as silk screens, three of his iconic Abstracts from 1936, 1937 and 1938.