MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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The alluring appeal of the quintessential British modernist
(L to R) 1933 (piquet) pole, 1933; June 16- 47 (still life)
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
Ben Nicholson: From the Studio
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex
WHEN Ivan Turgenev wrote in 1861 that “the drawing shows me at one glance what might be spread over 10 pages in a book,” he pointed to the separateness of the two experiences.
The work of British painter Ben Nicholson has the rare quality of being formally sophisticated and at the same time visually direct and approachable — devoid of mystique, it “speaks” for itself — hence requiring few, if any, words to describe it and certainly none to unravel its “meaning.”
Nicholson himself observed once in reference to his own work: “The kind of painting which I find exciting is not necessarily representational or non-representational, but it is musical and architectural,” adding that “whether this visual relationship is slightly more or slightly less abstract is, for me, beside the point.”
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