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Ben Nicholson | |
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 Portrait of Ben Nicholson byMabel Pryde, circa 1910–1914 | |
| Born | Benjamin Lauder Nicholson (1894-04-10)10 April 1894 Eight Bells,Denham,Buckinghamshire, England |
| Died | 6 February 1982(1982-02-06) (aged 87) Hampstead, London, England |
| Education | The Slade |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | abstract art |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 6, includingKate andSimon |
| Parents |
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| Relatives |
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| Awards | OM |
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Benjamin Lauder Nicholson,OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter ofabstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscapes, and still-life. He was one of the leading promoters ofabstract art in England.[1]
Nicholson was born on 10 April 1894 inDenham, Buckinghamshire, the son of the paintersSir William Nicholson andMabel Pryde, and brother of the artistNancy Nicholson, the architectChristopher Nicholson and Anthony Nicholson. His maternal grandmother Barbara Pryde (née Lauder) was a niece of the famous artist brothersRobert Scott Lauder andJames Eckford Lauder. The family moved to London in 1896. Nicholson was educated at Tyttenhangar Lodge Preparatory School,Seaford, at Heddon Court,Hampstead and then as a boarder atGresham's School,Holt, Norfolk. He trained as an artist in London at theSlade School of Fine Art between 1910 and 1911, where he was a contemporary ofPaul Nash,Stanley Spencer,Mark Gertler, andEdward Wadsworth. According to Nash, with whom he formed a close friendship, Nicholson spent more time during his year at the Slade playing billiards than painting or drawing, since the abstract formality of the green baize and the constantly changing relationships of the balls were, he later claimed, of more appeal to his aesthetic sense.[2]
Nicholson was married three times. His first marriage was to the painterWinifred Roberts; it took place on 5 November 1920 atSt Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London. Nicholson and Winifred had three children: a son, Jake, in June 1927; a daughter,Kate (who later also became a painter), in July 1929; and a son, Andrew, in September 1931. They were divorced in 1938. His second marriage was to fellow artistBarbara Hepworth on 17 November 1938 at Hampstead Register Office. Nicholson and Hepworth had triplets, two daughters, Sarah and Rachel, and a son,Simon, in 1934. They were divorced in 1951. The third and final marriage was toFelicitas Vogler, a German photographer. They married in July 1957 and divorced in 1977.
Nicholson's first notable work was following a meeting with the playwrightJ. M. Barrie on holiday inRustington,Sussex, in 1904. As a result of this meeting, Barrie used a drawing by Nicholson as the base for a poster for the playPeter Pan; his father William designed some of the sets and costumes.
Nicholson was exempted fromWorld War I military service due to asthma. He travelled to New York in 1917 for an operation on his tonsils, then visited other American cities, returning to Britain in 1918. Before he returned, Nicholson's mother died in July of influenza and his brother Anthony Nicholson was killed in action.
From 1920 to 1933, he was married to the painterWinifred Nicholson and lived in London. After Nicholson's first exhibition of figurative works in London in 1922, his work began to be influenced by SyntheticCubism, and later by the primitive style ofRousseau. In 1926, he became chair of theSeven and Five Society.
In London, Nicholson met the sculptorsBarbara Hepworth (to whom he was married from 1938 to 1951) andHenry Moore. On visits to Paris, he metMondrian, whose work in theneoplastic style was to influence him in an abstract direction, andPicasso, whosecubism would also find its way into his work. His gift, however, was the ability to incorporate these European trends into a new style that was recognizably his own. He first visitedSt Ives,Cornwall, in 1928 with his fellow painterChristopher Wood, where he met the fisherman and painter,Alfred Wallis. In Paris in 1933, he made his first wood relief,White Relief, which contained only right angles and circles. In 1937, he was one of the editors ofCircle, an influential monograph onconstructivism. He believed that abstract art should be enjoyed by the general public, as shown by the Nicholson Wall, amural he created for the garden of Sutton Place inGuildford,Surrey. Nicholson moved to St Ives in 1939 living at Trezion, Salubrious Place, for 19 years.[3] In 1943, he joined theSt Ives Society of Artists. In 1951 he and Barbara Hepworth divorced.
He won the prestigiousCarnegie Prize in 1952 and in 1955 a retrospective exhibition of his work was shown at theTate Gallery in London. In 1956, he won the first Guggenheim International painting prize and in 1957 the international prize for painting at theSao Paulo Art Biennial.[4]
Nicholson married the photographer Felicitas Vogler in 1957 and moved toCastagnola, Switzerland, in 1958. In 1968, he received the BritishOrder of Merit (OM). In 1971, he separated from Vogler and moved toCambridge. In 1977, they divorced.
Nicholson's last home was in Pilgrim's Lane,Hampstead. He died there on 6 February 1982 and was cremated atGolders Green Crematorium on 12 February 1982.[5]
The highest price reached by one of his paintings in the art market was whenApril 57 (Arbia 2) (1957) sold for £3,749,000 (c. $4,659,407) atChristie'sLondon, on 23 November 2016.[6][7]
Some of Nicholson's works can be seen at the Tate Gallery,Tate St Ives,Kettle's Yard Art Gallery inCambridge,The Hepworth Wakefield,Pallant House Gallery inChichester and thePier Arts Centre inStromness, Orkney.
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