Untitled (D.19)

This is one of a number of works which Tunnard produced in late 1939 and early 1940, most done during the period of uncertainty before his own wartime job as a coastguard was settled. Many were simply recorded as Untitled in Tunnard's records. This one was listed by him as D.19 (Drawing 19). Although produced in a variety of media, the works from this period tend to have a certain similarity. They often show the influence of Ben Nicholson, something which soon afterwards became much less important as Tunnard returned to finding ways of creating an illusion of depth. The double-headed structure on the right on the present painting is the simplest version of a motif which occurs in many works from the late 1930s to the end of his life, though most frequently in the war years and immediately afterwards. In the most abstract paintings the structures are little more than geometric shapes, but in the more surrealist or romantic ones they often substitute for the human figure.

B.W.