Ben Nicholson

Ben Nicholson was among the most influential and pivotal British artists, renowned for paving the way for abstraction in the UK.

Biography of Ben Nicholson

Ben Nicholson was born in 1894 in Buckinghamshire. His parents were the painters Sir William Nicholson and Mabel Pryde. Two years after his birth, the family relocated to London.

He studied art at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1910 to 1911, alongside notable peers such as Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler, and Edward Wadsworth. Nash, who became a close friend, noted that Nicholson spent more time playing billiards during his time at the Slade than painting or drawing.

Due to asthma, Nicholson was exempted from military service during World War I. In 1917, he traveled to New York for a tonsil operation and subsequently toured other American cities before returning to Britain in 1918.

From 1920 to 1933, he was married to the painter Winifred Nicholson, and they resided in London. Nicholson held his inaugural solo exhibition at the Twenty-One Gallery in London in 1924. His artistic style evolved, initially influenced by Synthetic Cubism and later by the primitive aesthetic of Rousseau.

While in London, Nicholson encountered sculptors Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. During visits to Paris, he interacted with Mondrian, whose neoplastic style would influence his move towards abstraction, and Picasso, whose cubism also left an imprint on his work. Nicholson's talent lay in integrating these European influences into a distinctive style that became uniquely his own.

In Paris in 1933, Nicholson created his initial wood relief, "White Relief," characterized by its use of right angles and circles. That same year, he co-founded Unit One, a group that included Paul Nash, Henry Moore, Edward Burra, and Barbara Hepworth among its members.

He played a significant role in editing "Circle," a pivotal monograph on constructivism published in 1937. The following year, he married Barbara Hepworth (the couple divorced in 1951). Shortly before the Second World War, he relocated to Cornwall with his family. St Ives became a significant influence on Nicholson and remained his residence until 1958 when he returned to London.

In 1949, he became a member of the St Ives Society of Artists. He was awarded the prestigious Carnegie Prize in 1952. In 1954, Nicholson represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, alongside Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. His exhibition toured Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, and Zurich before being showcased at the Tate Gallery in London in 1955.

In 1956, he received the first Guggenheim International Painting Prize, followed by the International Painting Prize at the Sao Paulo Art Biennial in 1957. The same year, he married again. This time his spouse was the photographer Felicitas Vogler. However, the couple divorced in 1977.

Ben Nicholson was awarded the Order of Merit in 1968 and received the Rembrandt Prize from the Goethe Foundation in Basel in 1974. 

Nicholson's final residence was on Pilgrim's Lane in Hampstead. He passed away there on February 6, 1982.

Ben Nicholson's Art Style

Nicholson was known for his abstract compositions, including works in low relief, landscapes, and still-life. He was a prominent advocate and promoter of abstract art in England.

In addition to his renowned reliefs, Nicholson created a substantial collection of prints, which he produced intermittently rather than consistently over his lifetime. Between the wars, he focused on relief prints, predominantly using linoleum with the exception of one woodcut. Shortly after World War II, he produced a small series of drypoints, and in the 1960s, he collaborated extensively with Swiss printer François Lafranca to create a large collection of etchings.