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Letter to Jim Ede |
The exhibition examines
the artistic relationship between Ben Nicholson and Winifred Nicholson as well as their collaborations with artists;
Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis and William Staite Murray.
This interaction and collaboration allowed for extraordinary
experimentation within a shared dialogue. The collaborative conversation creates
an aesthetic harmony
as Ben Nicholson becomes free from form, process and progresses to
complete abstraction in the 1930s. The flatness of embedded colour in the 30s adds
to Nicholson’s disappearance of reality towards a movement to minimalistic
tendencies.
A strong cubist link is absorbed within the Nicholson’s
change in practice upon visiting Paris in the 1920s, where they saw works by
artists such as Pablo Picasso. Both of the
Nicholson’s connection of ideas and thoughts through geometric abstraction and the
communication of line creates a sense of fragility. The gradation of colour
into mute compositions infused with a poeticism of a cold warmth emanating from
a refracted luminosity creates linear lyrical lines.
There is a reductive simplicity in the shadow formed lines
and contours of Ben Nicholson’s White
Relief, 1935. Within the defined space set by a monochromatic monotone wash exists a
linear narrative described by both positive and negative space. The seemingly
overlapping edges of reduction frame a composition set in a surface of subtle
textures.
One of the highlights of
the exhibition was the correspondence between the Nicholson’s and Alfred Wallis
with Jim Ede which illustrate the artist’s essence and perception of visual
movement across shapes in space to evolve their practices.
"All artists are unique and can only unite
as complementaries not as similarities" -
Winifred Nicholson
Winifred Nicholson
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Ben Nicholson (1925) Jamaique, [Oil on board] |
The
exhibition ART & LIFE: 1920-1931 - BEN NICHOLSON, WINIFRED NICHOLSON, CHRISTOPHER
WOOD, ALFRED WALLIS & WILLIAM STAITE MURRAY – runs from the 15th
February – 11th May 2014.
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