1941 (relief)
Ben Nicholson · 1941 · Cleveland Museum of Art
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Between 1934 and the early 1940s, Ben Nicholson made a series of geometric abstractions that combined painting and sculpture. Each “white relief,” of which this is an example, was painstakingly carved from a solid piece of timber and painted with multiple layers of white pigment. Nicholson began creating his white reliefs shortly before his first visit to Piet Mondrian’s Paris studio. Nicholson and Mondrian shared a belief in the potential of abstract art to attain the highest level of aesthetic and spiritual power. At the time Ben Nicholson was making his "white reliefs" that combined painting and sculpture, he was living with the sculptor Barbara Hepworth and frequently used her tools.
The museum’s own description, in English. Licence: CC0
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Details
- Maker
- Ben Nicholson (British, 1894–1978)
- Date
- 1941
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- Framed: 46.7 x 65.4 x 5.1 cm (18 3/8 x 25 3/4 x 2 in.)
- Place of origin
- England
- Held by
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · On view · 223 20th Century Avant-Garde
- Credit line
- Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art