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Lot Essay
A.M. Hammacher writes in the introduction of the 1966 exhibition catalogue, 'The seemingly effortless way in which 72 years old Ben Nicholson attains high tension in his line and the transparency of his work is little short of a wonder. The exertion which is needed to raise the skill of a trained hand above mere exercise, turning into a medium of clear emotion, 'a heaven of serene and mighty motion' (Shelley), is the exertion of a complex, creative mind, the outcome of dialogue between England and the continent. Nicholson has acheived the transaprency, the weightlessness and the fluid but precise linear movement, which is one of the few elements on which the 20th century is moulding its style.
His work is not ostentatious, but restrained. It is represented in a way in which matter has been reduced to the absolute minimum. All means are used by him: brush, pen, pencil, cutter, razorblade, chisel, oil paint, board, glass, linen, paper, dry-point, burin. He also makes use of colour, but it is not restricted to shapes or objects. His colour is wraith-like, filmy and unsubstantial, like a glimpse of light on the threshold of a new-born world. No bright reds, no bright yellows, no bright blue hues here. His colours are either on the edge of brightness or caught in the act of disappearing. His colours give, just as his lines, the impression of quiet movement. An inky black appears as if from nowhere. In its flowing contours the lines have a taut vitality of their own. Sometimes there is an indication of humour in the unexpected placing of a patch of colour, in the meeting of two lines, which seem to look at each other as if they were two playful lovers' (see exhibition catalogue, Ben Nicholson Recent Work, Zurich, Galerie Gimpel & Hanover, 1966).
His work is not ostentatious, but restrained. It is represented in a way in which matter has been reduced to the absolute minimum. All means are used by him: brush, pen, pencil, cutter, razorblade, chisel, oil paint, board, glass, linen, paper, dry-point, burin. He also makes use of colour, but it is not restricted to shapes or objects. His colour is wraith-like, filmy and unsubstantial, like a glimpse of light on the threshold of a new-born world. No bright reds, no bright yellows, no bright blue hues here. His colours are either on the edge of brightness or caught in the act of disappearing. His colours give, just as his lines, the impression of quiet movement. An inky black appears as if from nowhere. In its flowing contours the lines have a taut vitality of their own. Sometimes there is an indication of humour in the unexpected placing of a patch of colour, in the meeting of two lines, which seem to look at each other as if they were two playful lovers' (see exhibition catalogue, Ben Nicholson Recent Work, Zurich, Galerie Gimpel & Hanover, 1966).