Page 39 - Studio International - April 1967

ing. Hitchens and David Jones continued to produce
Fig. 6
Carved and painted board. Coll: Nicolete Gray
Formerly in the collection of Helen Sutherland, a generous patron space. In 1932-3, in a series of works which combine both
who bought frequently from 7 & 5 exhibitions and formed perhaps interests, he experimented with new surfaces and textures.
the best and most extensive collection of Nicholson's work
Fig. 7
Ben Nicholson
Painted relief 1933
Oil on carved board
21+ x 10 in.
Inscribed on reverse, 'First
relief December 1933'
Coll: Winifred Nicholson
representational work of a very high quality during the
'30s, but they did so in increasing isolation.
The poetic naturalism of Seven and Five painting in
the late '20s had had much to recommend it, but
Nicholson, who held the reins of the society, was growing
impatient with what was after all an essentially insular
style. The life with which Alfred Wallis invested the
cardboard and plywood shapes upon which he painted
had shown Nicholson the possibilities which lay outside
the conventional four-square framed picture. From 1928
on he became more and more preoccupied on the one
hand with the object quality of the work of art—the
quality which made each of Wallis's paintings an 'event'
in its own right (Nicholson's word) —and on the other
Ben Nicholson White Relief 1934 with the poetic situations of still life objects in a given
The physical involvement with the picture surface be-
came an increasing source of excitement and the unself-
consciousness which all physical activity brings gave
increasing freedom to the forms. (Fig 2.)
In 1931, at his exhibition at the Bloomsbury Gallery,
Barbara Hepworth first saw and admired Nicholson's
work. She and Henry Moore joined the Seven and Five
Society in time to exhibit in the 1932 exhibition. In
November of that year Nicholson and Hepworth ex-
hibited together at A. Tooth and Sons. In 1932 and '33
Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth made several trips
together to France and what Nicholson saw in Paris and
the personal contacts he made confirmed him in the
direction he was taking: (Fig 4) 'The particular value to
me of the "Miró, Calder, Arp" contribution of the 1920s
but exh. in Paris in the 1930s was a new freedom.
Mire) —freedom of ptg
Calder—of mobiles
Arp— of free sculptural forms on a base:
in fact a kind of liberation.' 4
The principle of freedom in art was important in the
'30s in a more than pictorial sense. At the time of the
rise of fascism, of Hitler's 'Decadent Art' exhibitions, and
of the forcible closing of the Bauhaus, non-representa-
tional art, by virtue of the nature of its opponents,
became identified by its practitioners (most specifically
by Mondrian) with freedom of thought and action in a
general sense. The second Abstraction-Creation Cahier
appeared in 1933 under the following editorial statement :
`Le Cahier "Abstraction-Creation" N° 2 parait au
moment où, sous toutes les formes, sur tous les plans,
dans quelques pays d'avantage qu'ailleurs, mais partout,
la pens& libre est férocement combattue ... Nous placons
ce cahier N° 2 sous le signe d'une opposition totale à toute
oppression, de quelqu'ordre qu'elle soft.'
Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth joined the Association
Abstraction-Creation at Hélion's invitation while in
Paris in 1933. Works by both were included in a standing
exhibition organized by the Association in 1934. Moore,
Nash, Nicholson and Hepworth were beginning to get the
international recognition which they so richly deserved.
The year 1933 was one of rapid development for Ben
Nicholson. Following his own preoccupations and stimu-
lated by new, closer contacts with Continental artists, he