Thanks to a generous gift from artist Angela Taunt through Arts Council England’s Acceptance in Lieu scheme, we have acquired three paintings and two block printed fabrics by collection artist Ben Nicholson (1894-1982), alongside a mochaware jug from his studio. The three paintings, 1929 (Kingwater Valley, Cumberland), 1965 (Kos – project for freestanding relief wall) and Sept’ 55 (monte Oliveto), as well as the fabrics and jug, will be on display in the Kettle’s Yard house for the next five years.
Nicholson studied at the Slade School of Art, and in the 1920s worked in both figurative and abstract styles, inspired by post-impressionism and cubism. The Cornish artist Alfred Wallis proved influential for Nicholson (along with his friend Christopher Wood), offering a way of painting with freedom and imagination beyond that supported by the academy or the avant-garde. From 1939-58, Nicholson lived in St. Ives, Cornwall, with Barbara Hepworth, who was his wife from 1939-1951.
Nicholson met Angela Verren Taunt at a party in Cambridge on 29 December 1971. Angela was a talented painter herself and had been a great admirer of Nicholson’s work, eventually becoming his studio assistant during the last ten years of his life. Taunt and her husband Derek were also fundamental early supporters of Kettle’s Yard, encouraging their networks of artists and friends to support the organisation in its formative years.
The paintings offer an insight into Nicholson’s evolving artistic practice. 1929 (Kingwater Valley, Cumberland) reflects a key stage in Nicholson’s artistic journey towards abstract art, as seen in another early landscape by the artist in the Kettle’s Yard collection, 1928 (Banks Head – Cumbrian Landscape).
By contrast, Sept’ 55 (monte Oliveto) references a trip to Italy that the artist made, where the views of mountains informed his return to relief forms with colour. In this work Nicholson uses a sharp green-yellow. It relates to a later work in the collection at Kettle’s Yard, March 1962 (Argos), which forms part of an important constellation of works by Nicholson displayed in the house’s 1970 modern extension.
1965 (Kos – project for freestanding relief wall) was made following Ben Nicholson’s architectural relief wall presentation at the third Documenta at Kassel in 1964, which Kettle’s Yard founder Jim Ede travelled to see. All of these paintings are now on display in the Kettle’s Yard house.
The linocut printed fabrics are two variants of Nicholson’s 1933 (letters and numbers), and are produced as bedspreads. These are now on display in the attic of the Kettle’s Yard house, where the original fabric could be found when Jim and Helen Ede lived at Kettle’s Yard. The last item is a ‘Moon Jug’ from Nicholson’s studio, depicted in the painting 1930 (plate, cup and jug) in the Kettle’s Yard collection, which hangs today in the lower extension. See these artworks on display in the Kettle’s Yard house, and discover more about the work of Ben Nicholson on your next visit.
Ben Nicholson
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