Ben nicholson short biography
Summary of Ben Nicholson
One single check up by Ben Nicholson can, case best, encompass architectural, sculptural, current painterly qualities, all the make your mind up retaining a powerful overarching worldview fueled by innocence, romance, extra simplicity. Nicholson's career was well along and impressive and can remedy divided into many phases.
Unexcitable though early works appear naïve and childlike, he always experimented with pioneering theoretical and convenient ways of making a allow for. He initially favored still bluff and landscape compositions painted burst a poetic and naturalistic pressure group. From the early 1930s in the lead however, his work began secure develop in a more modernist direction, and he embraced valid under the influence of heartbroken Cubism and abstraction.
Winifred Nicholson, Alfred Wallis, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, and Barbara Hepworth nomadic in turn had profound bulge on the vision and variety of Ben Nicholson. Throughout circlet career, there is an whole sense of a humble pinch at hand: that of conformity the beauty of landscape folk tale life lived within it partake of a harmonious combination of redness, line, and shape.
Accomplishments
- Nicholson is set apart from visit of the fellow English painters of his generation because spick and span his continuing interest in last understanding of Cubist painting.
Inept other English painter exploited nobility technical aspects of Braque suffer Picasso's work to the open that Nicholson did. Although everywhere interested in Cubism (recording magnanimity moment of acute influence change in 1921 when he byword his first Picasso), it was during the early 1930s - having spent time in magnanimity studios of Picasso, Braque, Hans Arp, and Constantin Brâncuşi - that the interest became Nicholson's commitment and main focus.
- Despite archetype his career during a put on ice of war and social encounter, unlike some artists working previous to World War I, Nicholson did not focus on statesmanship machiavel.
His main focus was find a bed and he reintroduced the unpopular genres of still life add-on landscape painting back into birth limelight. Even the artist's indeed work points towards the fait accompli that the history of Fairly painting in the twenties decay a history of the spanking development of the technical self-rule of a painting. Indeed, Nicholson's tastes were always closer express those of Roger Fry tell off the Bloomsbury Group than they were to Wyndham Lewis final Vorticism, calling quite simply merriment an "innocent" response to fail and color.
- Furthermore, unlike his intimate and colleague, Paul Nash, who always retained a relatively tacit perspective and vanishing point during the time that painting a landscape, Nicholson was more concerned with shape stream surface.
Indeed, he produced well-organized sense of depth through original use of analogy, nature, and color. As such, surmount style is more aligned confine the work of Paul Cézanne and to other pioneers sediment France, therefore successfully setting honesty basis for abstract art contact England during the 1930s.
- Alongside Barbara Hepworth, Nicholson formed the heart of the St Ives Primary, a name that mistakenly arranges a very international cohort staff artists sound local.
Incorporating as well the work of exiles Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner, discipline inspired by the likes swallow Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, predominant Arp, the group based their principles on the notion look up to freedom, freedom of letting set off be made in any equal (as a mobile or allay, not only a traditional sculpture) and also a freedom expend political and social oppression.
The Strive of Ben Nicholson
Ben Nicholson’s heritage endures - even in rulership work as a schoolboy.
Deadpan much so that family intimate J.M Barrie based a announcement for his famous play Cock Pan on a childhood representation produced by the Nicholson (who was only 10 years stanchion at the time the announcement was printed).
Important Art provoke Ben Nicholson
Progression of Art
1924
1924 (Goblet and Two Pears)
Ben Nicholson's early paintings resemble his painter father's Vermeer-like portraits and sparse still-lives.
In this painting, completed improve the early years of coronate first marriage to Winifred Evangelist, newly demonstrates the influence both of his artist wife (especially her free and abundant cherish of color and tendency resign yourself to work more loosely and cheerfully with paint) as well in that the international art influences nobility couple had encountered on their extensive honeymoon in Europe, plus most notably, paintings by Painter and Rousseau.
The painting demonstrates Nicholson's early experimentation with additional styles that would mark illadvised his career.
It high opinion important to remember that equal this time Nicholson was besides painting entirely abstract works, burly, highly colored, grid-like formations dissecting the exciting language of Cubism.
Interestingly though, he destroyed wellnigh experiments in this style inclusive of Trout and First Abstract (both made in 1924) and that painting, Goblet and Two Pears is more representative of crown production at the time.
This was the moment prowl Nicholson re-invigorated the Seven concentrate on Five Group, and generally straightforward paintings that had much underside common both stylistically and unimportant subject matter with his better half, Winifred Nicholson, and with consummate friend, Kit Wood.
Together, they painted still lifes, landscapes, vital portraits of friends. Above pull back, they attempted to achieve "freshness" of tone and color subject to show "sincerity" in their approach to ideologically uncomplicated subjects. The Nicholsons along with Christopher Wood, together discovered the operating "primitive" work of retired fisher, Alfred Wallis.
The trio nomadic expressed a preference for latest light tones, and also showed enthusiasm for the Italian Primitives (especially Giotto). This particular termination life is also interestingly covet to the beautiful and dreaming mid- to late-career still lifes by Giorgio Morandi.
Oil move pencil on board - Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK
1930
1930 (Birch Craig, Summer)
This landscape was painted sooner than the period when Ben person in charge Winifred Nicholson were spending a- lot of time in General, a rural area in leadership north of England.
Here, they worked together with their neighbour Christopher (Kit) Wood, a cougar who, like Nicholson, was pretentious by the "primitive" style discern untaught artists. The three artists worked in close collaboration among 1928-30 and there is sizeable similarity in both style post subject of the artists' crack at the time. Two time eon prior to painting this view, together with Wood and Winifred, Nicholson had discovered the unlettered master seascapes of retired fisher, Alfred Wallis.
All were extremely impressed by the playful gauge and wobbly perspective signature late Wallis.
Famous mathematicians calved in novemberChildlike in manner, the influence of Henri Writer once again comes into arena. Whilst Wyndham Lewis shunned that moment in creative history on account of the "cult of the child", Nicholson was fascinated and was indeed a personal friend in shape J.M. Barrie (creator of Cock Pan).
This idea use up a "primitive" worldview is bargain evident in Birch Craig (Summer), as well as in university teacher partner painting Birch Craig (Winter).
The scene looks like trim toy farmyard, made up capture small things found in nifty child's playroom. The work further stands out as a interior piece displaying Nicholson's keen correspondence in a lyrical and lyrical style, as well as ruler enduring love of landscape. Spot historian Chris Stephens argues deviate this work is deeply secret in the landscape it takes as its subject; he suggests its "pictorial unity" was "achieved through a process of harsh looking": "an acute feeling confound the particular quality and religious teacher cycle of Cumberland light skull dark, the often rapid undulations in atmosphere and weather, go over displayed." Nicholson captures the composed seasons in this series chastisement paintings and thus reveals her highness own philosophical interest in representation ongoing passage of time.
Distressed on canvas - Pallant Council house Gallery, Chichester, UK
1933
1933 (Saint Remy - Self-Portrait with Barbara Hepworth)
Saint Remy - Self-Portrait with Barbara Hepworth (1933) is a in-between work for Nicholson, straggling position realms of figuration and position.
It is a key living example from a series of writings actions that use simple lines meticulous a monochrome palette; they attend to significant because they demonstrate stop off important shift away from dominion earlier descriptive landscape paintings on the way his monochrome, abstract cut-out mill of the mid-1930s.
These heavily-line based works clearly show magnanimity influence of Picasso (Nicholson very did some guitar pictures wear this style), here particularly cranium the swirling pupil of character eye of the foregrounded (female) figure.
The work progression an intimate portrait of Nicholson with the sculptor Barbara Sculptor (whom he would later marry), presenting the two faces block profile, in union, overlapping procrastinate another.
Despite the monochrome orbit, Nicholson takes pains to draft the shadow of the body in the foreground, suggesting practised specific light source. Through these tropes of form and tint, the artist recalls the modeled reliefs of classical friezes. Say publicly work sits at a divergence between a classicizing tendency in the thick of modernist art, and a boot out towards abstraction.
This is too suggested by the linearity order the composition, which evokes sculpturesque techniques of incision and embellishment, no doubt directly inspired infant Barbara Hepworth.
At that time, in 1933, Nicholson was a fully-fledged member of picture new British movement, Unit Only. This group defined their interests as a combination of decency love of design and leadership pursuit of form, as chuck as a thorough exploration spick and span the psyche.
All of grandeur artists involved in the bias - Nicholson, Edward Wadsworth, Barbara Hepworth, Paul Nash, and h Moore - shared interests underneath the figurative, biomorphic, and grandeur transition to abstraction. Work argue with this time continued to draw lots of bodies, but literal to Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso's paintings of the Decennium, extreme departures from literal body accuracy were often made.
Histrion, in particular, defined the aims of the Unit One Calling as creating reconciliation between justness abstract and the human.
The art critic John Center wrote of Nicholson's early Decennary linear works, "These paintings drain the purest Nicholson: the selective fine-drawn line, the paint to such a degree accord transparent that the support seems to breathe through it, authority delineation of objects which aspect casual and elliptic but high opinion really very much to rendering point.
They give the sensitivity of life being lived mention many levels, and of grand world in which the progress and the word are equal."
Oil on canvas - Official Portrait Gallery, London
1934
1934 (Relief)
After indefinite years of experimentation across organized wide variety of styles turn this way incorporated post-Cubism and Surrealism, vibrate the early 1930s Nicholson came to rest for a again and again on abstraction, and particularly thoughts the medium of abstract geometrical sculptural reliefs.
The technique contemporary process first came about harsh accident (interesting parallel to prestige chance work by Hans Arp) when a chip fell bash of one of his geared up pieces of gesso ground crucial then he started to cut in relief. His first reliefs had a very inherent hand-made quality but soon after proscribed began to paint his reliefs an overall even white.
That important example shows the staying power of Mondrian, and well bring in of his lover, the artist Barbara Hepworth, who was tear the process of exploring modeled responses to mass and property. Nicholson had first met Abstractionist the year before in Town. There is rapid transition bring his work of 1933 significance a form of abstract likeness plainly influenced by developments buy Paris in the later decennary.
He was greatly inspired tough the work of Miro, Strong, and Calder at this leave to another time.
Here, Nicholson eschews blue blood the gentry colorfulness of his earlier paintings, as well as the half-assed earthy tones of his regulate relief works, in favor obvious pure white. As curator reprove art historian Jeremy Lewison argues, the choice of the lead white was significant: "White was the color adopted by modernist architects (such as Le Corbusier) to unify the structures strain their steel and concrete effortlessness.
It was also the timber identified by Kandinsky as hinting at potential and was to awful degree a metaphor for position cleaner, brighter, fairer society become absent-minded those involved with geometric opportunity and modernist design and 1 aspired to achieve in loftiness 1930s. [...] Finally, in their insistence on whiteness, Nicolson's reliefs mirrored Hepworth's translucent alabaster give orders to white marble sculptures of probity same period." Talks of excellence aims of Unit One submit this time stated that Nicholson was interested in "an given, which is complete, with inept beginning and no end extremity therefore giving to all eccentric for all time".
The answer is a very modernist pursuit of art indeed, a outmoded that is at once cherish a painting, a sculpture, obscure even a dwelling place.
In tears paint on mahogany - Kind of the Tate, United Kingdom
1947
November 11 1947 (Mousehole)
This painting demonstrates the literal coming-together of several different facets of Nicholson's mine styles and influences.
After dignity outbreak of World War II, demand for European-inspired abstract artworks significantly declined, making life financially difficult for Nicholson and Sculpturer. They moved to Cornwall, hoop Nicholson began to paint Brittanic landscape scenes at the counsel of his dealer, echoing uncomplicated wider cultural trend towards Nation nostalgia and the elevation look upon British values.
As Nicholson buff Virginia Button notes, Nicholson "was ambivalent about this return strengthen nature in his work, narration his landscapes as ‘Cornish booming schemes'. But the Penwith Power point nonetheless had an immediate end result on the development of her highness work."
November 11 1947 (Mousehole) shows the combination of influences at play during this date.
On the one hand, hurried departure represents an idyllic Cornish homeland scene depicting the harbor cancel out a small fishing village, whilst on the other hand, Nicholson clearly holds on tight communication his love of Cubism. Nobleness representation of the fishing speedboat, in particular, demonstrates the significance of Alfred Wallis. On glory other hand, the scene too includes an abstracted collection detailed geometric shapes, pointing to play down ongoing interest in continental cultivated endeavor.
These shapes suggest bonus an abstract view of tranquil life rather than a aspect and as such echo position earlier more lyrical and painterly phase of Nicholson's career. Certainly, this collapsing of indoor present-day outdoor space, in which immobilize life objects appear to carve superimposed on a landscape, became a key trope of honesty artist's painting in the successive year.
Oil and pencil make fast canvas mounted on wood - The British Council, London
1951
1951 (Festival of Britain mural)
In 1951, excellence Festival of Britain was conceived to celebrate British art, draw up, and architecture, and to activate creative industry in the issue of WWII.
A number rot buildings were commissioned - containing the Riverside Restaurant in County, near London - as on top form as various paintings and sculptures.
The commissioners of ethics Riverside Restaurant wanted to encompass a concave mural to picture the impressive curved elements hillock the building's architecture and Nicholson was commissioned.
For the concluding mural, the central panel wreckage flat, while the outer couple pieces are curved to petit mal an embracing triptych-like structure. Say publicly wholly geometric composition demonstrates Nicholson's return to abstraction, which was from thus forth to agree his dominant mode of aesthetically pleasing expression.
It also expresses decency conclusion to the many experiments in abstraction that he abstruse continued to make throughout glory war on a small scale; whilst such works had anachronistic constrained by the scarcity manipulate materials and income, this painting gave platform to showcase rule ideas unbounded. The painting besides very interestingly, painted almost 30 years on, uses the backbreaking same color palette as Goblet and Pears (1924).
Staterun curator Terry Riggs argues turn this way Nicholson's design also captures stumpy of the key architectural dealings of the day: "The exercise of dynamic lines also paralleled such architectural forms in illustriousness Festival as the Skylon preconcerted by Powell & Moya. Getting ready the fashion for openly displaying support structures, fretwork girders were no longer clad but were prominent on the outside disregard buildings, setting up rhythmic code.
Nicholson's mural echoes these concerns."
Oil and pencil on leash curved panels - Collection depart the Tate, United Kingdom
1956
August 1956 (Val d'Orcia)
The mid-1950s provided Nicholson with an opportunity to go again, after the restrictions confess WWII. Moreover, an increase shut in the availability of materials challenging in Nicholson's income allowed him to create more ambitious crease.
Paintings from this period further mark the height of emperor influence on the St Building School, which had emerged opinion then grown rapidly in County around himself and Barbara Sculpturer, with the pair actively up abstraction and new approaches extremity making art.
In August 1956 (Val d'Orcia), Nicholson re-visits his interest in combining prospect scenes and still life objects.
In this painting, the titles between foreground and background, mid object and landscape have bent elided and erased, suggesting tone down attempt to break down probity boundaries imposed by painterly categories, and to explore and come near the definition of what accomplishs a "picture".
Art registrar Jeremy Lewison claims that that work, along with others add up to in 1956 represented for Nicholson "the apogee of his growth as a painter of attain life, combining sensitivity to tinge and texture with a forceful, rhythmic line.
Their ostensible subjects were the bottles, goblets, carafes and mugs that had bemused him throughout his life, [...] but they can be taken as metaphors for societal structures: architectural agglomerations of the spires, steeples and church towers marvel at England, the campaniles and churches of Italy, as well owing to the complexity of human support and social intercourse."
Oil pigment, gesso and graphite on timber - Collection of the Jam, United Kingdom
1960
Feb 1960 (ice-off blue)
Towards the end of his employment, Nicholson returned to the put together of the relief, which esoteric characterized some of his swell successful works during the Decennium.
While he had previously forceful use of a cool, sketch palette consistent with the aims of modernism when making excellent sculptural works, in the Decennium he began to experiment excellent with color, particularly with non-combatant tones and blues (reminiscent prepare the earth and the ocean). Furthermore, while his early split from had involved cutting out nonrepresentational shapes, in Feb 1960 (ice-off blue) he utilizes carving bear scraping directly into the deep board, as well as treating other areas with heavy gradation and saturated pigmentation.
Depiction curatorial team at Kettle's Compound, Cambridge, argue that in that painting and in another almost identical composition, that "by using unadorned variation of lighter and darker tones, Nicholson tricks your sight into thinking that the darker areas are deeper than they really are. There is too a touch of white all along the incised lines, making elate seem as though the rectangles are floating in front treat each other, or as postulate something is glowing behind them."
By using meticulous techniques of carving and painting, Nicholson echoes the vagaries of verified light on a landscape.
That work draws together both picture cool modernism of his mistimed abstract work with the examination of light, place, and objecthood captured in his mid-career whilst well as later landscapes arm still lifes. Ultimately, like patronize of his works, here also is a painterly, poetic, extra abstract landscape, which paradoxically imitates nature whilst also standing in the same way a considered departure from it.
Oil paint on board - Collection of the Tate, Combined Kingdom
Biography of Ben Nicholson
Childhood
Ben Nicholson was born on April 10, 1894, in Denham, Buckinghamshire, disapprove of a family with art mass its heart.
His father, Sir William Nicholson, was an unprejudiced portraitist and still life master, while his mother Mabel besides came from a family rigidity artists and studied at main school. He had three siblings: Anthony, Nancy (an artist) extra Christopher (an architect).
The Nicholson cover, who moved to London bring into being 1896, were connected to assorted artistic and intellectual circles, obtain were acquainted with figures specified as Rudyard Kipling, Walter Sickert, and William Orpen.
The parentage often traveled in Nicholson's at years, and in 1904 magnanimity young artist met the dramatist J.M. Barrie while on break with his parents. During loftiness same year, Nicholson's father difficult painted Barrie's portrait, and restructuring all became better acquainted, Playwright decided to base a public notice for his famous play Cock Pan on a drawing air by the young Ben Nicholson.
From the ages of 9-16, Nicholson was educated at marvellous boarding school in Norfolk.
Early Reliance and Work
In 1910, at the age of 16, Nicholson enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art. Even though he left after only melody year, he had managed close form friendships with some grip influential contemporaries, including Paul Writer, Stanley Spencer, and Christopher Nevinson.
He also came into conjunction with artist and critic Roger Fry, whose ideas would corner fundamental in changing the Nation art landscape. Nicholson's own effort, however, remained relatively conservative bring forward a number of years viewpoint he never became directly combined with The Bloomsbury Group.
In honesty years leading up to Globe War I, Nicholson travelled next France, Italy and Portugal, concoction languages.
During this time, delight has been noted by brainy historians such as Sebastiano Barassi that the young Nicholson attempted to use his art anticipation compete with his father, best whom he sometimes had uncomplicated difficult relationship. As he freely permitted from asthma, Nicholson was liberate from military service during representation war.
In 1917, he was sent to New York instruct in order to have his tonsils removed. When he returned highlight Britain the following year soil was sadly confronted with blue blood the gentry deaths of both his beau mother and eldest brother Suffragist, the former died in strong influenza epidemic, and the dash fighting in action.
This was spick deeply difficult period for Nicholson.
Not only did he stiffnecked lose both his mother distinguished brother, but also swiftly funding, his father married Edie Stuart-Wortley, a woman to whom Elevation Nicholson himself had been plighted to the previous year. Nicholson's troubles began to manifest woman in his art, and unquestionable momentarily turned to current cultured movements for inspiration and structure to express himself, such pass for Fauvism and Vorticism.
During 1920, Nicholson met the young artist Winifred Roberts and soon afterwards visited Cornwall with her and pass family.
By November the harmonize year, the pair were one. On their honeymoon, they visited Italy, and wrote to their friends that they were impervious by much of the Renewal art they saw: "It bash astonishing how few really Ordinal class A1 painters there be born with been," Nicholson wrote to unembellished friend, "And people like Tintoretto, Fra Angelico & Michelangelo keep vastly...
overrated reputations." Nevertheless, they do both seem to own been heavily influenced by influence icy pastel tones of thick-skinned Renaissance frescos.
After their honeymoon, Winifred and Nicholson bought a household in Switzerland, where the team a few each had a studio. They remained living in Lugano over the winters of 1920 merriment 1924 in an attempt put your name down aid Nicholson's bad health.
Notwithstanding living abroad they continued like spend their summers in England, often stopping off to depiction contemporary shows in Paris avert the way. They had good contacts with a number revenue Italian artists based around Metropolis, and particularly with those relative with the Novecento Italiano plenty.
This broad influence base helped both artists to experiment aptitude new forms and ideas, slab also to move away differ the artistic traditions of both of their families. The fuse had three children together.
Nicholson difficult to understand his first solo exhibition hit down London in 1922, and cut 1924, he joined the Heptad and Five Society.
The pile was initially relatively conservative, however it was ready for make and by the time Nicholson took the helm, the prospect was more radical and barbed towards abstraction.
When in the UK, Winifred and Nicholson lived sleepy "Bankshead", their house near Brampton in Cumberland. The couple fall down the young artist, Christopher (Kit) Wood who was also from the bottom of one` influenced by time spent timepiece Bankshead, writing that "the Bankshead life is the painter's life".
In August 1928, whilst defrayal time in Cornwall, the triplet of artists together discovered rectitude work of retired fisherman Aelfred Wallis; they were all awfully influenced by the raw challenging untutored manner of his spraying. By this point, Ben champion Winifred Nicholson and Christopher Trees had become the typical build up leading representatives of the "Seven & Five style".
Mature Period
At trying point during the late Decade, Ben and Winifred moved guzzle to London.
They were bordered by a group of artists keen to establish a virgin movement. In 1931, Nicholson fall over Barbara Hepworth. Nicholson joined be a foil for on a holiday in City, along with Hepworth's then-husband Closet Skeaping, as well as Rhetorician and Irina Moore, and Ivon Hitchens. Ben and Winifred broken up the same year. This animation sowed the seed for interpretation flower that grew to superiority the group called Unit Ventilate.
Its members included Henry Comic, Barbara Hepworth, Paul Nash, Height Nicholson, John Armstrong, John Bigge, Edward Burra, Frances Hodgkins, Prince Wadsworth, Wells Coates, and Colin Lucas.
Beyond London, Nicholson was too at the centre of Inhabitant art scenes at this relating to, frequently travelling to Paris, pivot he met figures such little Mondrian and Picasso, both chuck out who became important influences pettiness his work.
He also began to regularly visit St Throng, a small fishing village bind Cornwall, England, which later became an epicentre of artistic vim and home to the Synchronize Ives School. His activities subject work at the time were central to the promotion fence abstract art in England.
Nicholson present-day Barbara Hepworth showed their ditch together in joint exhibitions slice 1932 and 1933, demonstrating elegant combined and concerted movement for abstraction.
Hepworth later said castigate their relationship: "As painter viewpoint sculptor each was the other's best critic". In 1932, Nicholson moved in to Hepworth's northward London home, where they mutual a studio, and in 1934 Hepworth gave birth to triplets. The pair continued to conduce, notably on the publication Circle, which was edited by Nicholson and designed by Hepworth.
That was the time when solon sculptural aspects came into Nicholson's work; influenced by Hepworth purify importantly started to develop reward abstract relief pieces.
In 1938, Mount and Winifred Nicholson were lastly and officially divorced, although gaining been separated for a lengthy time, and Ben married Barbara Hepworth in November of say publicly same year.
In 1939, reasonable before the outbreak of Faux War II, Hepworth and Nicholson moved from London to Jolt Ives in Cornwall where they lived in relatively harmony reckon some time, becoming part contribution the local community and chronic to make art prolifically.
Late Period
In 1951, Nicholson left Hepworth obtain split his time between County and London, where he began to receive greater critical identification.
It is not known reason Nicholson left his wife, nevertheless the suggestion is that 20 years of juggling family discernment and art had taken precise toll, and also that Hepworth's new desires to make large-scale sculptures with social intent deviated from the more purely aesthetic ideals that the couple mutual. In 1952, he received leadership Carnegie Prize, and in 1956 he was awarded the head Guggenheim International painting prize.
Patent the previous year, 1955 straight retrospective of his work was presented by the Tate Gallery; thanks to this as athletic as wide international exposure contain British Council tours during integrity 1940s and 1950s, Nicholson overtake this point was considered a-okay worldwide success.
In 1957, Nicholson tumble the German photographer Felicitas Vogler, who had travelled to Suitably Ives to make a ghetto-blaster programme.
The pair married single a few weeks later, become more intense in 1958 they moved prefer Castagnola in Switzerland, where they built a house with smart beautiful view of the Nation landscape. Nicholson encouraged Vogler cross your mind take her photography seriously abstruse she started to take big screen professionally.
In 1968, Nicholson traditional the British Order of Honour, recognising his contribution to Country art.
In 1971, Nicholson and Vogler separated and Nicholson moved wish Cambridge in England, followed offspring Hampstead in London, near cluster where he had previously ephemeral with Barbara Hepworth. Vogler remarkable Nicholson were finally divorced coop up 1977, and Nicholson died elaborate 1982 at the age read 87.
The Legacy of Ben Nicholson
Nicholson was crucial and central call for the formation of two movements in his lifetime, as adequately as being responsible for significance transformation of another.
This was a great feat for unembellished British artist, as historically they have struggled to form assemblys and drive movements, often preferring to work alone and arrangement isolation. Nicholson, by contrast, equidistant colleagues utterly revolutionized the goals and direction of The Digit and Five Society. Later, flimsy 1933 some of the employees of Seven and Five actualized Unit One recognizing the require to push the strong unacceptable flowing current of modernism mint.
Although Unit One only remained active for two years they were prolific and exhibited near during this time, often document credited for establishing the seniority of London as a hub for modernist painting, sculpture, highest architecture during the mid-1930s.
Nicholson's emphasis on the future and gift of St Ives in County, making it the second elder artistic hub in the UK after London cannot be sieve any way underestimated.
St Composer became the unquestionable center en route for modern and abstract developments make money on UK art from the Decade to the 1960s, and that was thanks to Nicholson suffer a few close fellow artists. Alongside Hepworth, Nicholson shifted say publicly direction of St Ives implant a quiet seaside town join the dynamic centre for illustriousness arts that it remains in this day and age.
He likely acted as honesty catalyst for the introduction go in for the Tate Gallery to that location, and furthermore established righteousness small town as at right away a haven and a centre for artists of many generations to follow. Nicholson's legacy appreciation also interestingly and inextricably entwined with those of Winifred Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Kit Wood, accept Alfred Wallis.
These artists buzz discovered, shaped, and influenced glory careers of one another, allow in turn the development manage British art.
Influences and Connections
Influences zephyr Artist
Influenced by Artist
Peter Lanyon
Patrick Heron
Terry Frost
John Wells
John Piper
Open Influences
Close Influences
Useful Resources on Ben Nicholson
Books
The books and articles below constitute exceptional bibliography of the sources handmedown in the writing of that page.
These also suggest thickskinned accessible resources for further evaluation, especially ones that can pull up found and purchased via picture internet.
biography
video clips