Lynton, loc. cit., writes, "Setting a linear structure, spread or concentrated, against contrasting flat surfaces and spaces was Nicholson's major programme at this time. One almost inevitably uses musical terms in speaking of it - polyphonic lines over a ground bass of formal chords, or some other such analogical language. Nicholson himself had recently written, "The kind of painting I find exciting is not necessarily representational or non-representational, but it is both musical and architectural, where the architectural construction is used to express a "musical" relationship between form, tone, colour and whether this visual, "musical", relationship is slightly more or less abstract is for me beside the point." (p. 251)