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Lot Essay
It was during the 1930s that Nicholson plunged into the realm of abstraction, of which he would become one of its most internationally-renowned proponents. 1934 (pewter) dates from a time when Nicholson’s still lifes were becoming increasingly abstracted and more complex, and allows us a window into Nicholson’s journey at this time. At the beginning of the 1930s, he was still working in a largely figurative idiom, yet soon enjoyed a number of watershed moments. This included an epiphany while looking at the layered display of a shop window in Dieppe that resulted in his seeing a means of creating a layered composition that was at once figurative and abstracted. His subsequent visit, in the company of Barbara Hepworth, to Pablo Picasso's home, helped to move Nicholson towards an increasingly lyrical abstraction that underpins the subject matter in the present work.
Nicholson’s visits to Paris had allowed him a wide perspective on a number of movements that interested him. Whilst the example of the Cubists, especially Braque, were still very significant (the two having met for the first time in January 1933), the more abstracted component in his works of this period suggest that Nicholson was becoming increasingly aware of the varying groups forming in the artistic circles of the city. His contact with the more abstracted artists such as Brancusi and Arp indicates that his preoccupations at this time were moving towards the non-referential. The genesis of his early reliefs in December 1933 drew on a variety of sources, but as these were developing alongside his paintings, their influence on his paintings of the time is evident.
Looking at 1934 (pewter) it becomes clear that the composition is filled with geometric forms that are tethered in the figurative world: hints and suspicions of various objects on a table-top are visible, rendered through the use of seemingly-overlapping planes of colour, revealing the sense of abstract harmony that underpins existence. Apart from the vessel to the far right of the composition, the still life elements are reduced to a sequence of forms which have mostly become simplified to a point where their original sources are lost. These are then combined around the central circular form, a device which both centres the frieze-like format of the painting but also connects the work to the disc forms from his contemporary reliefs. The flatness of this form is in deliberate contrast to the rest of the work, where the surface is scraped and rubbed to give texture beside the illusionistic shadow forms that also help to suggest depth. Yet within this almost completely abstracted image, there is still a suggestion of the link to the real that almost never leaves Nicholson’s paintings. Even the subtitle with its reference to the soft, dull lustre that is so particular to the metal pewter immediately brings us back to a tangible reality.
Nicholson’s visits to Paris had allowed him a wide perspective on a number of movements that interested him. Whilst the example of the Cubists, especially Braque, were still very significant (the two having met for the first time in January 1933), the more abstracted component in his works of this period suggest that Nicholson was becoming increasingly aware of the varying groups forming in the artistic circles of the city. His contact with the more abstracted artists such as Brancusi and Arp indicates that his preoccupations at this time were moving towards the non-referential. The genesis of his early reliefs in December 1933 drew on a variety of sources, but as these were developing alongside his paintings, their influence on his paintings of the time is evident.
Looking at 1934 (pewter) it becomes clear that the composition is filled with geometric forms that are tethered in the figurative world: hints and suspicions of various objects on a table-top are visible, rendered through the use of seemingly-overlapping planes of colour, revealing the sense of abstract harmony that underpins existence. Apart from the vessel to the far right of the composition, the still life elements are reduced to a sequence of forms which have mostly become simplified to a point where their original sources are lost. These are then combined around the central circular form, a device which both centres the frieze-like format of the painting but also connects the work to the disc forms from his contemporary reliefs. The flatness of this form is in deliberate contrast to the rest of the work, where the surface is scraped and rubbed to give texture beside the illusionistic shadow forms that also help to suggest depth. Yet within this almost completely abstracted image, there is still a suggestion of the link to the real that almost never leaves Nicholson’s paintings. Even the subtitle with its reference to the soft, dull lustre that is so particular to the metal pewter immediately brings us back to a tangible reality.