Wave Motif Relief, one of Kelly's earliest sculptures, was preceded by a yellow and white painting and an earlier black-and-white collage study of the same theme. A similar shape appears in a relief from 1958, Palm Relief, the title of which refers to the palm of a hand and its connection to the wrist, turned to reveal the underside. All of these share formal affinities with Brancusi's marble Flying Turtle.

"The Wave Relief motif may be perceived as a more overtly biomorphic statement of the earlier 'palm' shape, the wrist element turned and placed at top...Its shape also suggests the back of a figure, thighs raised at each side. Kelly described the subject of Wave Relief as the experience of a wave breaking over a swimmer." (Sims and Pulitzer, op cit., p. 70)