Ben Nicholson, O.M.

Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Redfern Gallery, London, where acquired by the present owners, 21st June 1988

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Ben Nicholson, April - June 1968, cat. no.62, illustrated pl.62.

The board is sound. There are minor scuff marks to the edges that are original to the board. In excellent original condition. Under ultraviolet light, there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held in a metal box frame under glass; unexamined out of frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 5381 if you have any queries regarding this work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

After leaving St Ives in 1958, there was a major shift in the emphases in Nicholson's work. Whereas his work of the 1950s had been dominated by the magisterial still life-influenced paintings with which he had won numerous international prizes, the move to Switzerland heralded a change in which we see a return to a simpler compositional language.

However, although this was marked by a return to the simple geometric forms of the paintings and reliefs of the 1930s, these new works used these basic elements in a very different way. Nicholson's choice of materials was at the root of this. Whilst the early reliefs had mostly used natural woods, he increasingly turned to commercially produced composite hardboards. Much harder to work than natural wood, Nicholson found that this aided the process of creation by slowing and intensifying the physical approach to the material and thus allowing his expression of an idea to become more channelled. This concept of a struggle with the material was one which clearly struck Nicholson, and in a letter to his friend Adrian Stokes he used a most interesting metaphor to express this,

I like the tough resistance of material bec. it forces one into a feeling for it & for the 'idea'. A little bit like my poodle Black Billy who tugs at a paint rag & the more I pull the more he growls & harder he pulls, in fact rather a good description of making a relief? (the artist, correspondence with Adrian Stokes 15th May 1964, TGA) 

The uniform flat surface and texture of the hardboard, both in its prime state and once worked, also provided a very good base for the limited range of colours with which Nicholson worked throughout the 1960s. Although he had experimented with such colouring before, such as in Painted Relief, 1935 (Private Collection), the use of such a limited palette, enlivened by the different effects that were achieved once applied to the worked surface, gives the works of this period an entirely different character. The effects achieved, which often have an almost organic character or suggest the weathered and aged surface of antiquities, make for a very contemplative serenity, allowing the viewer to immerse themselves in the intricate balance and counterpoint of the forms. In his monograph on Nicholson's reliefs, Peter Khoroche discusses the way in which the works of this period seem to echo some of the zen-influenced aesthetic concepts such as wabi and sabi, and whilst Nicholson's direct knowledge of such notions is uncertain, such ideas were very much part of the life and work of his friend and fellow St Ives artists, the potters Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada whose own pieces were in the collections of virtually all those of Nicholson's circle .