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  • 1934 (relief)

Ben Nicholson OM

1934 (relief)

1934

© Angela Verren Taunt 2023. All rights reserved, DACS

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Not on display

Artist
Ben Nicholson OM 1894–1982
Medium
Oil paint on mahogany
Dimensions
Object: 718 × 965 × 32 mm
frame: 742 × 990 × 69 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Purchased 1978
Reference
T02314
  • Display caption
  • Catalogue entry

Display caption

Nicholson was interested in the ways in which paintings can represent space. In the 1930s, he made shallow reliefs in which areas of different depths define actual space. In the most radical of these, colour was reduced to just white or grey to achieve a sense of purity. Depth and plain colour make the play of light and shadow an intrinsic part of the work. This emphasis was related to new ideas about living and, especially, to modern architecture, in which natural light and formal simplicity were major concerns.

Gallery label, December 2016

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Catalogue entry

T02314 RELIEF 1934 1934

Inscribed ‘Ben Nicholson’ and ‘title: relief 1934’ on back
Oil on carved mahogany panel, 28 1/4 × 38 × 1 1/2 (71.8 × 96.5 × 3.8)
Purchased from the artist (Grant-in-Aid) 1978
Exh: (?) Work by Members of the Artists International Association, Brighton Art Gallery, August 1939 (71)

Ben Nicholson made his first completed relief in Paris in December 1933. This and the other reliefs made in the next month or two were usually painted in greys and browns. The first relief painted completely in white was executed in March 1934, the month in which he exhibited a white relief ‘2 circles’ at the 7&5 Society exhibition at the Leicester Galleries. In most of the white reliefs the excavated areas were bounded by circles; a rectangular excavated area as in the right-hand side of T02314 is unusual.

The artist told the compiler in April 1979 that he could not recall exactly when he made T.2314. Seven reliefs dating from 1934 were included in Nicholson's exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery in September 1935 and one dating from 1934 was included in his exhibition there in May 1947, but it is impossible to say whether this particular work was among them. The remains of an Artists International Association label on the back makes it almost certain, however, that it was included in the Exhibition of Work by Members of the Artists International Association at Brighton Art Gallery in August 1939.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1978-80: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1981

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Unit One

Explore

  • abstraction(8,615)
    • non-representational(6,161)
      • geometric(3,072)
      • monochromatic(722)
  • emotions, concepts and ideas(16,416)
    • formal qualities(12,454)
      • order(41)
      • purity(43)
      • space(177)

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  • Ben Nicholson OM 1933 (milk and plain chocolate)

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  • Ben Nicholson OM 1935 (white relief)

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  • Ben Nicholson OM June 1937 (painting)

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  • Ben Nicholson OM Feb 28-53 (vertical seconds)

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  • Ben Nicholson OM Feb 55

    1955
  • Ben Nicholson OM 1939-44 (painted relief)

    1939–44
  • Ben Nicholson OM circa 1936 (sculpture)

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  • Ben Nicholson OM 1924 (first abstract painting, Chelsea)

    c.1923–4
  • Ben Nicholson OM 1934-6 (painting - still life)

    1934–6
  • Ben Nicholson OM 1934 project for Massine for Beethoven 7th Symphony Ballet

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  • Ben Nicholson OM 1936 (white relief sculpture - version 1)

    1936
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  • Ben Nicholson OM Jan 27 1933

    1933

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