Ben Nicholson

Ben Nicholson (born 1894 in Buckinghamshire, UK - died 1982) studied at Slade School of Art from 1910–1914. Nicholson was married three-times, his second marriage was to fellow artist Barbara Hepworth with whom he had triplets.

The painting presented here in the exhibition is an exemplary example of Nicholson's still lifes of the late 1950s and 60s. Their overlapping forms, often transparent, are given body by accents of color and pencil shading. The construction of these paintings is a development from his works of the mid-thirties in which Nicholson allowed the forms of earlier paintings to penetrate later re-workings. The surface has been rubbed down repeatedly and, in common with many other such works of the period, is smooth and punctuated by elements of color. Nicholson would primarily have had in mind the grid-like abstracts of Mondrian, whom he greatly admired. There is a remarkable consistency in the way that Nicholson formulated his abstract designs, from his first such exercises in the 1920s through to the 1950s and 1960s.

Nicholson made many works that reference Greece in their titles and subject matter although only traveled there extensively from 1959. His works from this time on reflect a close study of Greece and its ancient sites and architecture. Among the many works that refer to his Greek travels (including the painting here) are numerous paintings and later etchings.