Ben Nicholson and The St Ives School

venue: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Ben Nicholson (1894–1982) is recognised as one of the greatest British artists of the twentieth century.

He first came to prominence in the 1930s as a pioneer of abstract art, but also retained a life-long interest in the depiction of landscape and the still-life. In 1939, with his wife (the sculptor Barbara Hepworth), Nicholson moved to Cornwall. He lived in or close to St Ives until 1958, when he moved to Switzerland. During this period Nicholson and Hepworth became prominent members of a celebrated artists’ colony which included Naum Gabo, Terry Frost, Patrick Heron and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham.

This display will consist of works in the Gallery’s permanent collection, as well as a group of private loans. It will look at Nicholson’s long and prolific career, from his Cumbrian landscape Walton Wood Cottage No.1 of 1928, to his seminal abstract White Relief of 1935. It will illustrate his response to the Cornish landscape and the work he made following his move to Switzerland, including June 1961 (Green Goblet and Blue Square).