Four brass rings and one jade ring, undated (pre-1940)

Richard Pousette-Dart started to work in painting and sculpture in the mid-1930s, holding his first exhibition in New York in 1941. It was at this time that he met Jim, who was in the United States on a lecture tour. There ensued a long and poetic correspondence, revolving around their shared admiration for Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.

The circle dominates Pousette-Dart’s work more than any other form. In 1940 he gave Jim Ede a small, circular brass ring as a ‘token’ of their friendship. Pousette-Dart believed that the circle, as a symbol, was a spiritual form. For him the circle signalled the ‘circular vibration’ of ‘eternal life’. Throughout the 1960s and 70s Pousette-Dart explored astronomical subjects, frequently using circles and holes in combination with titles such as Moon, Sun, Implosion or Healing Circles.