Art and Life: Ben Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, William Staite Murray, 1920-1931

Delightful exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery looking at the work of Ben and Winifred Nicholson during their marriage and bringing in the work of their close friends the artists Christopher Wood and Alfred Wallis and the ceramicist William Staite Murray.

The first gallery looked at the early years when they visited Paris and lived in Switzerland. In Paris they encountered Cubism and the show explored how that affected their work. It pointed out that Ben was interested in form and Winifred in colour and I’d never really throught what that might mean before. I think I’m with Winifred on the side of colour!

The next room looked at their time in Cumberland where their friends Christopher Wood and William Staite Murray began to visit. The final rooms looked at their time in St Ives where they met Alfred Wallis and started to admire a more primitive style of art.

I loved the sections where works by Ben, Winifred and Christopher were shown together, in particular three pictures of the same hill where they must have sat in a row and painted. I loved the feeling of companionship in that. There were also drawings by Ben and Christopher where they had competed to show the same scene in as few a lines as possible. I was so shocked at the end to fine that Christopher had filled himself. I had such a sense of happiness from the pictures.

My favourite works were the pictures of vases of flowers in windows by Winifred. I loved the apparent simplicity of them and the way she revisited the theme.

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