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In 1928, the Cornish artist Alfred Wallis and his friends Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood met at St Ives and laid the foundation for the artists' colony of today. In 1939, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo settled in St Ives, attracted by its quiet beauty. In 1993, a branch of the Tate Gallery, the Tate St Ives, opened here. The Tate also looks after the Barbara Hepworth Museum and her sculpture garden. It was the wish of the late sculptor to leave her work on public display in perpetuity. The town also attracted artists from overseas, such as Piet Mondrian, who let the landscape influence their work, and Maurice Sumray, who became a successful and respected contributor to the St. Ives art scene when he moved to the town from London in 1968[4]. Prior to the 1940s the majority of artists in St Ives and elsewhere in West Cornwall belonged to the St Ives Society of artists; however events in the late 1940s led to a growing dispute between the abstract and figurative artists within the group. In 1948 the abstract faction broke away from the St Ives Society, forming the Penwith Society of artists led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben
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