Research Point: Ben Nicholson

Ben Nicholson

Why does he simplify still life forms and negative space and superimpose them on the Cornish landscape?



He continued to work as he did in London when he first arrived in Cornwall on his ‘white relief’ art.

 

  It was suggested in the film made about him and his wife Barbara Hepworth…….. that he turned to landscapes in order to earn a living during the war years around the 1940’s and he would paint landscapes observed through a window and incorporate still life elements in the forground.  I would think also that the weather would be extremely cold and this was the best option to keep warm.

This is a beautiful painting done looking through a window at the landscape in the 1930's.

This is done in the early 1940's and you can see how he has used his previous concept of painting through the window to add still life to the painting.

And and even later painting from this period.