Mondrian|Nicholson in parallel study day


Very good study day at the Courtauld Institute of Art to complement their current exhibition looking at the work of Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson and the links between them.

The morning looked at the lives of the two artists up to the point they met with Caroline Levitt looking at Mondrian and Jeremy Lewison at Nicholson. I did not know much about either artist and these talks gave me good overview of their artistic development up to 1934.

The afternoon put them in the context of 1930s artistic London in an interesting talk by Sam Rose, although I could have done with a few less long quotes. Finally we brought the two artists together in a talk from co-curator of the exhibition Lee Beard. This was a fascinating overview of the parallels between their work and how they may have influenced each other. I would have liked to hear a bit more about the personal links between them as later in the exhibition I was fascinated to see that Winfred Nicholson, Ben’s wife, was the first person in England to purchase a Mondrian.

All in all a very interesting day. I was pleased that I had waited to see the exhibition until after the study day. 

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