The biscuit-tin modernist

Ben Nicholson, master of the right angle and perfect circle, has had an irregular reputation in his native Britain. Before the war, he was thought outrageous, with his paintings of nothing and his white wood reliefs so avant-garde they were practically foreign. Then we won the war and Nicholson became a national treasure. When Modernism faded, we preferred his Cornish landscapes, clean, bright and picturesque - the very spirit of St Ives. But now that St Ives itself is oversold, we have returned to those circles... more>