Mason Bacheller Wells (June 19, 1906 - August 5, 1984) was
an artist, active/lived in
California, Massachusetts. Despite being heirs to the American Optical Co.
fortune, Cady Wells (also gay) and his
younger brother Mason Wells devoted their lives to the arts.
Mason Bacheller Wells was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts on June 19, 1906. His siblings were Henry Cady Wells (artist and friend of Georgia O'Keefe, Ansel Adams and Martha Graham, lived in Santa Fe, collected southwestern art since donated to Santa Fe Museum) his work is in collection of National Gallery and Whitney Museum, Channing McGregory Wells, Alfred Wells, Elizabeth (Lizzy) Wells who married Heywood Fox.
Mason Wells was a second generation Modernist known for his non-objective, geometric modern imagery. During the 1960s his work was exhibited and acquired by the Art Gallery of Ontario; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; solo exhibition Quay Gallery, Tiburon, 1963 et al. Mason Wells has been bought and sold on the secondary market, at auctions and is represented in art galleries, particularly in California. An interesting abstract painter beginning to gain an increase in value and art historical importance and notoriety.
Wells was a resident of San Francisco, and exhibited at many California galleries. He was also a major financial donor to the San Francisco Art Institute and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Wells never married and lived with his younger sister, Elizabeth Wells Fox of New Canaan, Conn., and adopted son, Franklin Moss Hamilton of San Francisco.
He died in Belvedere Tiburon, Marin County, California on August 5, 1984.
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