Nicholson, Ben

Nicholson, Ben (1894-1982), English painter and sculptor, born in Denham, Buckinghamshire. His father, Sir William Nicholson, was famous for his portraits, illustrations, and posters, executed mostly in woodcut. The younger Nicholson, who studied painting in England, France, and Italy, had his first one-man show in London in 1922. His work progressed from Impressionism through Cubism to a phase influenced by the Neo-Plastic painter Piet Mondrian, in which Nicholson constructed shallow reliefs made of basic geometric forms painted white or in neutral tones, such as White Relief (1935, Tate Gallery, London) and Painted Relief (1939, Museum of Modern Art, New York). Eventually he evolved his own style of delicately coloured and purely composed abstract paintings, always based on real objects or landscapes, as for example, November 1956 (Pistoia) (1956, Art Institute of Chicago).