Ben Nicholson, O.M.

Marlborough Fine Art, London
André Emmerich, Zurich
Waddington Galleries, London
Sale, Sotheby's London, 26th June 1988, lot 196
Sale, Sotheby's London, 23rd May 1990, lot 87, where acquired by the present owners

London, Marlborough Fine Art, Ben Nicholson - New Reliefs, 1971-73, cat. no.36, illustrated, with tour to Marlborough Galerie, Zurich and Marlborough Galerie, Rome;
Tokyo, Tokyo Art Centre, Ben Nicholson, 1982, cat. no.11, illustrated;
Helsinki, Galerie Artek, Ben Nicholson, 1984, cat. no.12.

The work is constructed of two boards laid on one another, both of which are sound. There is some very minor frame abrasion visible to the extreme edges, and there are a few minor scuffs to the surface thought be in keeping with the artist's working method, including to the lower part of the extreme left edge and to the board at the upper centre. There is a light layer of surface dirt to the work. Subject to the above, the work appears to be in overall excellent condition. Inspection under UV light reveals no obvious signs of retouching or restoration. The work is presented in a painted wooden carved frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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In 1958 Ben Nicholson left St. Ives, the Cornish fishing town and artists’ colony that had been his home in Britain for over twenty years, for Switzerland. Accompanied by Felicitas Vogler, who he had married the previous year, the move occasioned a renaissance of relief carving in his work. Vogler, a photographer, shared Nicholson’s interest in detail, surface and texture, and during this period his attention returned to the techniques he had developed whilst working on his 1930s white reliefs. Nicholson revisited this approach with the acuity and sensitivity of an artist now in his seventh decade, having found a place amongst the leading figures of European modernism and enjoying international critical and commercial success. 

Executed in 1971, Brown Relief with Circle dates to this period of reinterpretation in Nicholson’s career that saw the creation of some of his most exciting works, including the monumental relief that he created for the third international Documenta exhibition in Kassel in 1964. The foamed concrete wall that measured four metres high by fifteen metres wide was the only one of Nicholson’s reliefs that was constructed to an architectural scale, and its positioning along a horizontal pool heightened the fantastic effect of the scale. 

The move to Switzerland heralded a return to a simpler compositional language, looking back to the geometric forms of the paintings and reliefs of the 1930s, but these new works used these basic elements in a very different way. Nicholson's choice of materials was at the root of this. Whilst the early reliefs had mostly used natural woods, he increasingly turned to commercially produced composite hardboards. Much harder to work than natural wood, Nicholson found that this aided the process of creation by slowing and intensifying the physical approach to the material and thus allowing his expression of an idea to become more channelled. This concept of a struggle with the material was one which clearly struck Nicholson, and in a letter to his friend Adrian Stokes he used an interesting metaphor to express this: ‘I like the tough resistance of material bec. it forces one into a feeling for it & for the 'idea'. A little bit like my poodle Black Billy who tugs at a paint rag & the more I pull the more he growls & harder he pulls, in fact rather a good description of making a relief?’ (the Artist, correspondence with Adrian Stokes 15th May 1964, TGA).

The uniform flat surface and texture of the hardboard, both in its prime state and once worked, also provided a very good base for the limited range of colours with which Nicholson worked throughout the 1960s. The subtle modulation of tones across the sharply defined planes and the close range of Nicholson’s palette give the works of this period a distinctive character. The effects achieved, which often have an almost organic character or suggest the weathered and aged surface of antiquities, make for a very contemplative serenity, allowing the viewer to immerse themselves in the intricate balance and counterpoint of the forms. Brown Relief with Circle demonstrates Nicholson’s mastery of transforming his works into objects where balance and vitality are held together beautifully. As he wrote in 1967: ‘It’s a dead material but one becomes so keen on one’s ideas that the dead material quickly becomes alive’ (letter to Adrian Stokes, in Ben Nicholson (exh. cat.), Tate, London, 1993, pp. 92-93).