Page 40 - Studio International - April 1967

Fig. 8
Ben Nicholson
Carved relief early 1934
Carved and painted wood
17 x 29 in.
Coll: Alan Emil, New York
One of the earliest of the
geometrical reliefs,
completed soon after the
first relief (figure 7)

progressed through a series of free linear still life motifs the 'beginning'. It was a great achievement. His reliefs of
into compositions in which the life and swing of line and the next few years transcend their period.
colour come free of the real life situations on which they Progress over the next few months was very rapid and
had been dependent, and begin to lead a poetic existence by March 1934 Nicholson was exhibiting his white
of their own upon the canvas or board. (Fig 3.) The reliefs with the 7 & 5. The combination of deep poetry
various elements are gradually separated out until the and classic purity of form gives these works a quality
individual forms become circles of pure colour and the unequalled in the work of any English painter of this
limiting outlines of table or window become mobile. century. To have painted them pure white was an act of
Nicholson had painted 'abstract' works before 1933 but in audacity in the context but the move seems an inevitable
most of these the starting point for the composition had one in retrospect. The pleasure of exposing the white
been a decorative motif taken from a real object. In surface of plaster beneath his still lifes of the early thirties,
Trout of 1924 the stripes from a jug; in a series of compo- his reaction to the pure poetic environment of Brancusi's
sitions of 1928-9 the patterns from playing cards or fire- studio (visited with Hepworth in 1933) or to the clear sea
works. In these works of 1933, however, the basis for the light on the white-washed cottages of St Ives, each may
composition is a poetic enjoyment of the relationship of have played a part in leading Nicholson to this point. In
forms and colours in space, now sufficiently realized for front of the reliefs themselves one is conscious only of the
the poetry to be sustained without the need for figurative light which the forms give off and which dissolves or
props. The painter's vision has broadened and deepened, defines them like sunlight and shadow on the landscape
the poetry become more general and more pervasive. which they play across (Fig 6). This was what distinguished
In the course of his increasing involvement with the Nicholson from his European contemporaries, that
quality of the picture surface Nicholson had experimented whereas Gabo's art had always been, and Mondrian's
with the use of plaster grounds on board into which had become, essentially urban, Nicholson's white reliefs,
lines could be incised through the paint. When, in the without losing their relevance for contemporary design
course of one of these compositions, a chip of plaster as a whole, remained firmly rooted in his poetic perception
flaked out at the intersection of two lines Nicholson of the natural world. (Fig 10.)
exploited the 'creative accident' and found himself work- Nicholson had been gradually leading the 7 & 5 in
ing in relief. The composition in question, dated Decem- the direction which he was taking himself and in April
ber 1933, is one of the least ordered and most exciting of 1934 the society passed a ruling that only non-represent-
Nicholson's works. (Fig 7.) It has the object-quality of a ational works were to be shown in future exhibitions. New
Wallis and preserves the experience of its making as a members included Francis Butterfield, Cecil Stephenson,
piece of cardboard would preserve for Wallis the magical John Piper and Nicholson's pupil Arthur Jackson
properties of the sea or of ships which he painted upon it. (A. J. Hepworth), all of whom exhibited abstract work
`One was wanting to get right back to the beginning and with the society in 1934. Len Lye, who had been a member
then take one step forward at a time on a firm basis since 1928, showed abstract designs related to his pioneer
and a painting for me if it's anything is a living thing work on cartoon films. Piper was influenced in his abstract
and should achieve a form of life more real than life work by Lye's moving shapes, and later by the free
itself.'5 In December 1933 Nicholson had arrived back at modelled forms of Jean Hélion. (Fig 12 & 14.) The four-