For its Winter Exhibition, Connaught Brown journeys towards Abstraction, highlighting pivotal 20th century artists such as Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Roger Hilton, Afro, André Lanskoy and Alexander Calder.

In parallel to the major Tate Modern retrospective of Alexander Calder’s dynamic mobiles, Connaught Brown will display a vibrant Calder work in gouache. Filled with cosmic discs and suspended spirals, ‘Untitled’ (1967) illustrates Calder’s theatrical recreation of motion and performance in his practice as he broke away from figurative linear representation.

André Lanskoy’s ‘Composition’ (c.1956) spotlights a parallel route to Abstraction in the French movement of Tachisme. This monumental painting was made at the height of Lanskoy’s international success as his relationship with fellow Russian artist Nicolas de Staël and gallerist Louis Carré developed.

The exhibition will also feature British Abstract artist Roger Hilton. While ‘September’ (1953) describes Hilton’s interest in crisp formal abstraction, ‘Untitled’ (1962) evokes Hilton’s reintroduction of figurative elements in his work through gestural mark-making and organic shapes.

Another highlight will be Pablo Picasso’s Cubist masterpiece ‘Guitare sur une table’ (1921). This work belongs to a series of nine abstract still life drawings and paintings that illustrate the traditional Spanish guitar as a central Cubist symbol.

Other artists in the exhibition will include Marc Chagall, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Le Sidaner, Raoul Dufy, Leon Pourtau and Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin.

To complete a fascinating exhibition there will be a portrait by Frank Auerbach. In conjunction with the Tate Britain’s Auerbach retrospective, this charged painting intimately captures the personality of the artist’s wife Julia Wolstenholme.