When was ben nicholson born

Alan Wheatley Art. Two or Three Forms , Galleria Open Art. Untitled Stoppered Vase and Goblet , Jenna Burlingham Fine Art. Bernard Jacobson Gallery. Movement , Upsilon Gallery. Get the latest news on the events, trends, and people that shape the global art market with our daily newsletter. Ben Nicholson British, — Biography Ben Nicholson was a British painter and sculptor whose Cubist-influenced works contributed to the history of abstraction.

After his meeting in with the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, who became his second wife, he made frequent trips to Paris, visiting the studios of Piet Mondrian, Georges Braque, Constantin Brancusi, and other leading artists. These artists prompted Nicholson's conversion in to abstract art. His works of this period, perhaps his finest, consist of geometrical abstract paintings composed of rectangles and circles of clear, uniform colors and of carved white reliefs of extraordinary purity, made from wood and synthetic board.

These works are perhaps closest to the neoplasticism of Mondrian, who lived in London from to and was in close contact with Nicholson and his wife. During this period in London, Nicholson edited Circle, a publication on constructivist art, and joined an avant-garde artists' group called Unit One.

Ives in Cornwall. There he began to turn away from the severity, purity, and strictly rectilinear structure of his works.

He made paintings and drawings of the harbors and landscapes of western Cornwall and still lifes in an abstracted form of late Cubism, in which the objects are indicated by overlapping linear silhouettes, with silvery tones enlivened by small patches of brilliant color. It was not until Nicholson was well into his fifties that he began to receive international attention.

Nicholson's troubles began to manifest themselves in his art, and he momentarily turned to current artistic movements for inspiration and ways to express himself, such as Fauvism and Vorticism. During , Nicholson met the young artist Winifred Roberts and soon afterwards visited Cornwall with her and her family. By November the same year, the pair were married. After their honeymoon, Winifred and Nicholson bought a house in Switzerland, where the couple each had a studio.

They remained living in Lugano during the winters of to in an attempt to aid Nicholson's bad health. Despite living abroad they continued to spend their summers in England, often stopping off to see contemporary shows in Paris on the way.

They had good contacts with a number of Italian artists based around Milan, and particularly with those associated with the Novecento Italiano group. This broad influence base helped both artists to experiment with new forms and ideas, and also to move away from the artistic traditions of both of their families. The couple had three children together. Nicholson had his first solo exhibition in London in , and in , he joined the Seven and Five Society. The group was initially relatively conservative, but it was ready for change and by the time Nicholson took the helm, the outlook was more radical and pointed towards abstraction.

The couple met the young artist, Christopher Kit Wood who was also profoundly influenced by time spent at Bankshead, writing that "the Bankshead life is the painter's life". In August , whilst spending time in Cornwall, the trio of artists together discovered the work of retired fisherman Alfred Wallis ; they were all greatly influenced by the raw and untutored manner of his painting.

At some point during the late s, Ben and Winifred moved back to London. They were surrounded by a group of artists keen to establish a new movement. In , Nicholson met Barbara Hepworth. Ben and Winifred separated the same year. This trip sowed the seed for the flower that grew to be the group called Unit One.

Beyond London, Nicholson was also at the centre of European art scenes at this time, frequently travelling to Paris, where he met figures such as Mondrian and Picasso , both of who became important influences on his work.

He also began to regularly visit St Ives, a small fishing village in Cornwall, England, which later became an epicentre of artistic activity and home to the St Ives School. His activities and work at the time were central to the promotion of abstract art in England. Ben Nicholson was a British modernist painter who made abstract drawings and paintings that feature lots of squares, circles and rectangles.

They are very simple and flat. He often looked at things in the real world such as his cat Foxy and transformed them using abstract shapes. Here is the first abstract painting Ben Nicholson ever made. What do you think of it? Do the shapes and colours remind you of anything? This picture is painted on canvas, but he later painted onto wooden boards.

He would use a razor blade to scrape back the paint so that the pictures look weather beaten and old, as if they have been eroded by time. Ben Nicholson was born in England in His father was a very famous and eccentric artist called William Nicholson and had a great influence on him.