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Ben Nicholson: Defining Works: 1929-1954

Past exhibition
19 September - 10 December 2024 Piano Nobile
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Summary
Ben Nicholson working in his studio, Casa alla Roca, 1965
Ben Nicholson working in his studio, Casa alla Roca, 1965

An artist of rare ingenuity, sharp wit and copious invention, Ben Nicholson was among the leading international modernist artists of the twentieth century. In this exhibition Piano Nobile presented significant works from several distinct periods of his career. Nicholson’s reputation is partly founded on his pioneering use of relief carving and the display featured his first completed relief, made in Paris in December 1933, which had not been in a solo exhibition since the major Nicholson retrospective in 1992/93. Alongside the first completed relief are paintings that illustrate important creative milestones in Nicholson’s work between 1929 and 1954—the period in which he rose from the sanctum of advanced British painting to receive international acclaim. Among them are Nov 9–53 (walnut), a post-cubist painting formerly owned by the sculptor Barbara Hepworth and not seen in public since 1954.

Including both table-top still-life paintings and non-representational work, such as Design for an Act Drop (1945), the exhibition demonstrated the sudden emergence of abstraction in Nicholson’s work during the thirties followed by a return to his ‘still-life theme’ after 1945. The show followed Ben Nicholson: Distant Planes, held at Piano Nobile in 2020/21, which brought together relief carvings and landscape drawings made in Switzerland between 1958 and 1971.

 

For further information and availability of artworks please contact the gallery

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Works
  • Ben Nicholson, December 1933 (first completed relief), 1933
    Ben Nicholson, December 1933 (first completed relief), 1933
  • Ben Nicholson, Design for an Act Drop, 1945
    Ben Nicholson, Design for an Act Drop, 1945
  • Ben Nicholson, July 14–54 (viper), 1954
    Ben Nicholson, July 14–54 (viper), 1954
Media


Installation Views
  • Hbb 008A0514 Edit
  • 008A0558 Edit
  • Hbb 008A0555 Edit
Press
  • Collectors' Focus: Post-war British Abstraction

    Collectors' Focus: Post-war British Abstraction

    Apollo October 7, 2024
    Though less popular abroad than it once was, British art of the 1940s and ’50s is still highly sought after at home, writes Emma Crichton-Miller....
    Read more
  • InSight No. 157

    InSight No. 157

    Ben Nicholson | December 1933 (first completed relief), 1933 September 24, 2024
    Ben Nicholson’s relief carvings are a landmark in the history of modernist art. It was a new kind of art that married the tableau format...
    Read more

Related artist

  • Ben Nicholson

    Ben Nicholson

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PIANO NOBILE | Robert Travers (Works of Art) Ltd

96 / 129 Portland Road | London | W11 4LW

+44 (0)20 7229 1099

info@piano-nobile.com 

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