Dimensions: support: 125 x 140 mm
Copyright: © Angela Verren Taunt 2014. All rights reserved, DACS | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Nicholson's "1979 (blue)," a modest-sized work now held at the Tate, presents a striking arrangement of geometric forms. Editor: It feels like a shard of something larger, maybe architectural, and the textures give it an almost handmade quality. Curator: Exactly. Nicholson, even late in his career, was deeply invested in exploring materials and simple shapes, wasn't he? Editor: Absolutely. The scale allows for an intimate engagement with the materials, emphasizing process, as much as the final image. Curator: It's a quiet piece, yet it hums with the subtle energy of balanced forms. Maybe it suggests a hidden landscape, or even an abstract memory. Editor: It prompts us to think about how we perceive and construct meaning from the very stuff of the world, the paints, papers, and surfaces. Curator: Ultimately, it's a small, powerful testament to the potential of abstraction to evoke feeling. Editor: Yes, a testament crafted from the simplest of means.
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This small abstract work painted in gouache on white wove paper dates from the end of Nicholson’s career. Compositionally it consists of a loosely geometric form, built up from four differently coloured and shaped blocks. Nicholson cropped the form to its edges and placed it centrally on the support, which creates a wide border. Black dominates but inset within the black area is an evenly proportioned parallelogram of bright blue. To the right are areas of red-brown and off-white. The work is mounted on textured, stone-coloured backing board and set within a box frame painted dark grey.
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