| Description | The collection comprises samples all made from printed cotton and a printed length of furnishing fabric featuring 'Numbers' designed by Ben Nicholson in circa 1933; a cushion cover featuring an abstract and bird motif by Nancy Nicholson and abstract designs by Jake Nicholson. The final fabric samples are by Ben's son, Jake who as a young child inspired his father to create a fabric 'Rufus'.
The collection also contains: two pencil sketches (framed together) of Winifred Nicholson's (nee Roberts) flat in Paris by Ben Nicholson; a model of a wooden room and chest of drawers made by Ben Nicholson for Jake Nicholson's bear house; a pencil sketch of Ben's bear made by Mabel Pryde (Ben Nicholson's mother); and four Greek pebbles painted with pastels by Winifred Nicholson.
It was during 1932-33, that Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson produced a group of lino-printed cotton fabrics, primarily for their own use, which drew on Nicholson's earlier work with linocuts on paper. 'Numbers' demonstrates graphic agility, playfulness and an instinctive sense of rhythm. The design "recalls the Cubist fascination with newsprint and typography. The blocks were cut in a deliberately 'rough-and-ready' fashion, quite unlike commercial textiles, and the printing was initially done by the artists themselves. [...] Later in the decade, several of Nicholson's designs were reprinted by his sister Nancy Nicholson at Poulk Press." [Leslie Jackson, Alistair Morton and the Edinburgh Weavers, London: V&A Publishing, 2012, pp. 78-80]. Subsequently in 1937, both Hepworth and Nicholson collaborated with Alastair Morton of the Edinburgh Weavers on a series of highly innovative woven and printed fabric designs for Constructivist Fabrics. There is a photograph of Ben Nicholson featuring 'Numbers' and a similar design that was digitised, from his archives at TGA 8717/5/7/42, as part of the HLF-funded 'Archives & Access' project (http://www.tate.org.uk/art/archive/items/tga-8717-5-7-42/studio-st-ives-photographs-of-ben-nicholson-looking-in-the-mirror-showing-his-textile).
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| Administrative History | Ben Nicholson was born in 1894 into a family of artists. His mother Mabel Nicholson, his father, William Nicholson and his uncle James Pryde were distinguished artists. Ben was a pupil at Tyttenhanger Lodge Preparatory School from 1903 and spent the Summer term of 1909 at Gresham's School, Holt. He studied at the Slade School of Art 1910-11 but was largely self-taught as an artist. He travelled widely in Europe and the United States between 1912 and 1918. He married Winifred Roberts and they lived in London and Cumberland between 1920 and 1931. Nicholson's first solo show was at the Adelphi Gallery in 1921, also that year he visited Paris for the first time and saw paintings by Picasso and Braque. During a visit to Cornwall in 1928 with Christopher Wood, the Nicholsons met Alfred Wallis. Nicholson was a member of the 7 & 5 Society and was also active in Unit One. During the early 1930s, Nicholson made frequent trips to Paris where he met Picasso, Braque, Brancusi, Arp, Mondrian and Moholy-Nagy. Jean Hélion encouraged him to join Abstraction-Création in 1933. In 1937 he was the editor of 'Circle' and in 1938 he married Barbara Hepworth. From 1939 to 1958 he lived in Cornwall. He was commissioned to paint a mural for the Festival of Britain in 1951, in 1954 he had a retrospective exhibition at the Venice Biennale, and in 1955 and 1969 at the Tate. He was awarded many international prizes. Nicholson married for a third time to Felicitas Vogler and in 1958 moved to Ticino in Switzerland. He died in 1982.
Nancy Nicholson (born Annie Mary Pryde Nicholson) was the only daughter of the artists William Nicholson and Mabel Pryde. In addition to her brother Ben, she had two other siblings, the architect Christopher Nicholson and Anthony Nicholson, who was killed in action in the First World War. After her marriage to the poet, Robert Graves came to an end and whilst living with Geoffrey Taylor on a houseboat moored in Hammersmith, Nancy set up the Poulk Press in which she collaborated for a time with him. Later they lived in a timber house designed by Nancy in Wiltshire and it was during this period that she worked with Ben and his wife Barbara Hepworth on textiles. Nancy's own designs influenced her sister-in-law E. Q. Nicholson (see TGA 977) whilst her own work was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1976.
Jake Nicholson worked for many years for Edinburgh Weavers, which was established as an experimental branch of Morton Sundour Fabrics in 1928. From 1931, their Director was Alastair Morton, who, in this period, fused textiles and modern art tapping into the creativity of Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Paul Nash and later Terence Conran. The launch of the Constructivist Fabrics line in the 1930s saw the firm at the forefront of the Industrial Art Movement taking artists' work and translating them into textiles. Later in the 1950s, the firm produced a range that typified the 'contemporary' colour palette of Britain after the war. Correspondence from Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth to Alastair Morton can be found at TGA 8722. |
| Custodial History | Shirley Nicholson (widow of Jake Nicholson) |