Yellow Dahlias in Blue Vase, oil c1952

Oil on canvas, 46x56cm
When Mann moved into a flat (in the present-day Barbican) without day light, he had to paint in artificial light. This led him to concentrate on shadow formations. These mostly small, formalised paintings of the ‘solid-shadow’ period use line and heightened colour for the first time. No artist before or since Mann has explored shadow to the same extent.