Room guide
Lower Gallery 2: 1930s
Nicholson’s work changed dramatically after 1931 when he met the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, whom he would later marry. He celebrated their relationship in a series of paintings.
The year 1933 was one of particularly rapid development. The idea of the painting as a three-dimensional object was increasingly important and the year culminated in his first carved reliefs.
Nicholson's major breakthrough came in 1934 with his white reliefs, from which all colour was banished. He continued to produce these alongside severely abstract paintings until the end of the 1930s. The whiteness stood for modernity and new ideas of spirituality. The reliefs' textured surfaces, meanwhile, continued to invoke a rural tradition of hand-made practices.
Works displayed in this room
- 1932 (Auberge de la Sole Dieppoise)
Oil, pencil and plaster on plywood
Tate. Presented by Mr and Mrs Michael Sacher through the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1967 - 1932 (crowned head - the queen)
Oil and pencil on canvas
On loan from Abott Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria - 1933 (guitar)
Oil on board
Tate. Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1940 - 1933 (six circles)
Oil on board
Private Collection - 1934 (relief)
Oil on wood
Tate. Purchased 1978 - 1934 (white relief)
Oil on board image: 146 x 185 mm
S. Martin Mason - 1935 (white relief)
Painted wood
Tate. Purchased with assistance from the Contemporary Art Society 1955 - 1935 (white relief)
Oil on carved and built-up wood
British Council - 1935 (painting)
Oil on canvas
Private Collection - 1936 (still life: composition)
Oil on canvas image: 505 x 760 mm (50.5 x 76 cm)
On loan from Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria - June 1937 (painting)
Oil on canvas
Tate. Purchased 1955 - 1937 (painting)
Oil on canvas
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh - 1937 (painting)
Oil on canvas
The Samuel Courtauld Trust, London