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拍品专文
Feb 28-53 (circle + cast shadow) sits within a small group of paintings that Nicholson produced in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when he created some of his most celebrated linear abstracts. This was a period when he was combining the greater use of colour that he had developed during the war years with an increasingly dynamic abstract idiom. Perhaps the most celebrated of these works is 1952 (mural), a commission he received for the Time-Life building in London, and two earlier curved panels October 1949 (composition - Rangitane) and October 1949 (Rangitane - curved panel), that were commissions for the New Zealand Shipping Company.
Although of small size, Feb 28-53 (circle + cast shadow) is filled with a multitude of colours, mustard yellow, olive green, salmon pink, plaster pink, pale blue, pale grey, scumbled brown, white and crimson red, each colour block divided and sometimes intersected by the pure geometric pencil lines, and with a single circle to the upper centre of the composition. The combination of the lines and colours, in the purity of abstraction, gives a sense of folded sheets of paper and the hint of shadow. This dynamic and vibrant painting is a tour-de-force, a wonderful example of Nicholson’s mid-career work and his emergence as one of the most important British artists of the 20th century. Along with Barbara Hepworth, he became the mentor and inspiration to the younger generation of Post-War British abstract artists who emerged at the start of the 1950s.
The 1950s was the most important decade for the recognition and reputation of Ben Nicholson as Britain’s leading Modernist and Abstract painter. He won the prestigious Carnegie Prize (Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh) in 1952. He was chosen, together with Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud to represent Britain at the 27th Venice Biennale in 1954, where this painting was exhibited, and where he won the Ulisse award. In 1955 a retrospective exhibition of his work was shown at the Tate Gallery in London. In 1956 he won the first Guggenheim International painting prize and in 1957 the International prize for painting at the São Paulo Art Biennial.
We are very grateful to Rachel Smith and Lee Beard for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Although of small size, Feb 28-53 (circle + cast shadow) is filled with a multitude of colours, mustard yellow, olive green, salmon pink, plaster pink, pale blue, pale grey, scumbled brown, white and crimson red, each colour block divided and sometimes intersected by the pure geometric pencil lines, and with a single circle to the upper centre of the composition. The combination of the lines and colours, in the purity of abstraction, gives a sense of folded sheets of paper and the hint of shadow. This dynamic and vibrant painting is a tour-de-force, a wonderful example of Nicholson’s mid-career work and his emergence as one of the most important British artists of the 20th century. Along with Barbara Hepworth, he became the mentor and inspiration to the younger generation of Post-War British abstract artists who emerged at the start of the 1950s.
The 1950s was the most important decade for the recognition and reputation of Ben Nicholson as Britain’s leading Modernist and Abstract painter. He won the prestigious Carnegie Prize (Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh) in 1952. He was chosen, together with Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud to represent Britain at the 27th Venice Biennale in 1954, where this painting was exhibited, and where he won the Ulisse award. In 1955 a retrospective exhibition of his work was shown at the Tate Gallery in London. In 1956 he won the first Guggenheim International painting prize and in 1957 the International prize for painting at the São Paulo Art Biennial.
We are very grateful to Rachel Smith and Lee Beard for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.