1929 (still life)

Ben Nicholson, 1894–1982

1929, reworked 1935

Oil and pencil on canvas

Yale Center for British Art

An abstract still life composition features geometric shapes and lines, with a central arrangement of forms suggesting bottles and bowls. The artwork utilizes a muted color palette and appears to be rendered on canvas. Ben Nicholson began this still life in 1929 but returned to it in 1935, by which time he had embraced a more rigorous geometric abstraction. He scraped down the canvas until all that remained were the outlines of the original forms. He then re-created the image, this time with no concern for actual appearances, turning it instead into a pared-down, abstracted version of its former self. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection