Ben Nicholson, O.M.

Professor John Hilton
Edna Nixon, Cambridge
Waddington & Tooth Gallery, Ltd., London
(Probably) Acquired from the above, circa 1960s

New York, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Ben Nicholson, 50 years of his art, 1978, no. 20, p. 64, illustrated 
Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum of Art, on temporary loan, 1979

Norbert Lynton, Ben Nicholson, London, 1993, no. 92, illustrated p.103

Oil on canvas mounted on board by the artist. In good condition, aside from 1/2 inch line of inpainting extending vertically from the top of the lower left red circle and a few associated small spots extending upwards. Two small spots along the vertical edge of the left hand corner: several small spots in the lower 1/3 of the white circle and the upper left quadrant. Several small spots in the lower edge of the center rectangle. Inpainting along the edge of the brown circle in the lower right corner: 3 by 1/2 inch irregular triangle of inpainting along the left edge of the lower right rectangle. Several very small spots along the vertical edge of the upper right corner. The work has been seen by a conservator who feels the retouching can be reduced.
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During the early 1930s, Nicholson's work became increasingly abstract as the figures, objects and landscapes that had occupied him in the 20s made way for constructivist explorations of form and color.  This incredibly important decade for the artist gave rise to some of the most challenging and lyrical works of his career.  Although initially resistant to the implications of abstraction, Nicholson eventually surrendered his attachment to realistic interpretation and embraced a purity of shape and color.  Norbert Lynton writes of this period in Nicholson's life, while the artist was in Paris with Barbara Hepworth, "The 1932-33 paintings signal a honeymoon period, with Barbara and with Paris, but also renewed exploration of the elements of art" (Norbert Lynton, Ben Nicholson, London, 1993, p. 82). 

Painted in 1933, the present work is an elegant and important composition from a period in Nicholson's career when he was experimenting with new ways of formulating his artistic vision.  In his earlier works, Nicholson reduced concrete objects into geometric forms, but at the time the present work was painted, the artist was thinking about his compositions in purely abstract terms.  While 1933 (painting) refers back to Nicholson's early works, it also closely resembles some of the artist's first white reliefs, the seminal compositions which preoccupied the artist throughout the deacde. 

 
Fig. 1 Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth
Fig. 2 Ben Nicholson, 1934 (relief), oil on carved board. Collection of the Tate Gallery, London