(1965) Olympia

When Ben Nicholson executed Olympia (1965), he was enjoying increasing prominence as a major international artist. A string of exhibitions and prizes throughout the previous decade had established his reputation further afield, and he was now living and working at the heart of Europe, having moved to the shores of Lake Maggiore in 1958 with his third wife, the photographer Felicitas Vogler. From here, they made frequent trips across the continent- touring Italy, Greece, Turkey and Portugal - and the places they visited appear in the subtitles of many works from this time.

The present work refers to the ancient ruins at Olympia in Greece where Nicholson returned on numerous occasions throughout the 1960s. The artist has depicted the architectural forms and fragments of the ruins as he did still-lifes; overlapping shapes and shifting perspective, finding abstracted forms within recognisable motifs. He would prepare the paper in his studio beforehand, with thinned oil washes, and then cut it into irregular, asymmetrical shapes. Nicholson routinely used this device of shaped paper in this period, and in the present work it is visually playful, distorting perspective and space in tandem with the line drawing. The drawing is distilled and selective, and with remarkably few lines, Nicholson builds a highly experimental study of space, form and light. Vogler described Nicholson’s work as ‘distinguished from a very early stage by clarity and the great art of omission' (F. Vogler in M. de Sausmarez (ed.), Ben Nicholson: a Studio International Special, London, 1969, p. 21).

We are very grateful to Rachel Smith and Lee Beard for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.