Ben Nicholson

Nicholson, Ben, 1894–1982, English painter; son of Sir William Nicholson. Nicholson's geometric abstractions of landscapes and still lifes are discreetly colored and lyrically expressed. In works such as Relief (1939; Mus. of Modern Art, New York City) Nicholson developed the purism of de Stijl with great elegance. His paintings are in many collections, including the museums of Minneapolis, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. He was married to the painter Winifred Dacre and later to the sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

See his Drawings, Paintings and Reliefs, 1911–1968 (1969); study by C. Harrison (1969, repr. 1972).

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