Artists

Ben Nicholson was a prominent British painter born in Denham, Buckinghamshire, to artists William Nicholson and Mabel Pryde. He studied at the Slade School of Art from 1910 to 1911 and spent significant time in France and Italy from 1912 to 1914, later traveling to the United States in 1917-18.

Nicholson's early works were still lifes influenced by his father, but in the 1920s, he embraced figurative and abstract styles inspired by Post-Impressionism and Cubism. His geometric and abstract reliefs emerged in 1933. He exhibited his work for the first time in 1919 and held his first solo show in 1924 at the Twenty-one Gallery in London. Nicholson was a key member of the Seven and Five Society from 1924 to 1935 and joined Unit One, founded by Paul Nash, in 1933. Alongside Naum Gabo and architect Leslie Martin, he co-edited Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art in 1937, which promoted the application of constructivist principles in art.

Nicholson received numerous accolades throughout his career, including first prize at the Carnegie International in 1952 and the Guggenheim International painting prize in 1956. He was honoured with the Order of Merit in 1968. His work has been showcased in major retrospectives, including exhibitions at the Venice Biennale and Tate Gallery. With the support of the British Council and writer Herbert Read, Nicholson became a defining figure in British modernism, celebrated for his mathematical precision and innovative approach to colour and form.