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Lot Essay
Nicholson began making reliefs at the end of 1933. Although there are some accounts that Nicholson came across the method of carving into the board by accident when he was incising lines into a surface, other factors contributed to his interest in working with a three dimensional surface.
Nicholson was commissioned by his friend, the artist, Adrian Stokes, who had a keen interest in carving, to design the dust jacket of Stones of Rimini, (published 1934, see fig. 1). Nicholson was also influenced by Hepworth's work and wrote in a letter to Herbert Read, 'I don't think Arp's reliefs had any influence on mine - mine came about by accident & bec.[ause] of Barbara's sculptor's tools lying around. But Arp's free sculptural forms did have an indirect influence - there was a free poetry in these which HM [Henry Moore] and BH's [Barbara Hepworth's] work lacked at that time - the same freedom was in Paris in Calder's earlier mobiles & Miro's about 1924-26 work - but direct influence came only from these. Arp's reliefs come from some almost literary poetic idea & for this reason he could conceive them & have someone else carve them out? Mine came about bec. of a passion for working with my hands. It's an exact opposite approach I suppose' (see J. Lewison, exhibition catalogue, Ben Nicholson, London, Tate Gallery, 1993-4, pp. 40-1).
The first reliefs that Nicholson worked on were carved freehand, however, by the middle of 1934 he plotted the geometric forms in the reliefs using a ruler and compass. The surfaces of the reliefs, however, are not entirely smooth and, as demonstrated in the present work, they remain essentially handcrafted objects (see exhibition catalogue, Ben Nicholson, Hayama, The Museum of Modern Art, 2004, pp. 86-7).
Nicholson was commissioned by his friend, the artist, Adrian Stokes, who had a keen interest in carving, to design the dust jacket of Stones of Rimini, (published 1934, see fig. 1). Nicholson was also influenced by Hepworth's work and wrote in a letter to Herbert Read, 'I don't think Arp's reliefs had any influence on mine - mine came about by accident & bec.[ause] of Barbara's sculptor's tools lying around. But Arp's free sculptural forms did have an indirect influence - there was a free poetry in these which HM [Henry Moore] and BH's [Barbara Hepworth's] work lacked at that time - the same freedom was in Paris in Calder's earlier mobiles & Miro's about 1924-26 work - but direct influence came only from these. Arp's reliefs come from some almost literary poetic idea & for this reason he could conceive them & have someone else carve them out? Mine came about bec. of a passion for working with my hands. It's an exact opposite approach I suppose' (see J. Lewison, exhibition catalogue, Ben Nicholson, London, Tate Gallery, 1993-4, pp. 40-1).
The first reliefs that Nicholson worked on were carved freehand, however, by the middle of 1934 he plotted the geometric forms in the reliefs using a ruler and compass. The surfaces of the reliefs, however, are not entirely smooth and, as demonstrated in the present work, they remain essentially handcrafted objects (see exhibition catalogue, Ben Nicholson, Hayama, The Museum of Modern Art, 2004, pp. 86-7).