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Notes

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The muted colours and square grid composition of this relief emphasise stillness and surface. Through the tonal palette of oatmeal, grey, black and white, Nicholson creates spatial relationships that both emphasise and contradict the real space of the shallow relief.

Increasingly during the late 1940s Nicholson's focus turned towards still life and landscape subjects, and this is one of relatively few reliefs made at that time. Formally it relates back to a group of monochrome works executed ten years earlier. The arrangement of the squares within a strict grid, and the construction of space around a tonal treatment of form, highlight Nicholson's comprehension of ideas developed by leading European modern artists, such as Mondrian and Gabo.

The Pier Arts Centre

Stromness

Title

1944–5 (painted relief)

Date

1944–1945

Medium

oil on carved board

Measurements

H 74 x W 75.7 cm

Accession number

PAC 45

Acquisition method

gift from Margaret Gardiner, 1979

Work type

Painting

Inscription description

1. 'cat no 34'. 2. 'TOP / ↑'. 3. 'Ben Nicholson / 1944-5'. 4. 'Nicholson / Chyan Kerris / Carbis Bay / St Ives / Cornwall'. 5. exhibition label for Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums (Pier Gallery Collection 1978). 6. exhibition label for Tate (Pier Gallery Collection 20th Sept-29th Oct 1978). 7. exhibition label (artist name and work title). 8. exhibition label for Yamato, Japan.

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