Works by Ben Nicholson, one of Britain's most distinguished pioneers of abstract art and the man who inspired Jim Ede to create Kettle's Yard, are being exhibited at the gallery this summer.

Chasing out something alive: drawings and painted reliefs 1950-75 runs until 22 September 2002.

The exhibition brings together two opposite but complementary aspects of Nicholson's mature work - the drawings and painted reliefs which he made between 1950 and 1975.

The reliefs, carved in hardboard and painted, show Nicholson at his most abstract and austere. By contrast, the drawings of landscapes , buildings and still lifes find him at his most intimate, witty and spontaneous, recording the journeys he made through Italy, Greece, France and Portugal, to Yorkshire, East Anglia and the north-east coast.

By bringing together almost 60 drawings and reliefs, this exhibition shows how both express the same artistic sensibility. They are the poles between which Nicholson's imagination ranged, from the particular to the universal - the two-dimensional image exploring one facet of reality, the three-dimensional object another. Together they constitute his most assured and characteristic achievement and, with the white reliefs of 1934-39, are the works by which he wished to be judged.

The exhibition starts in 1950 with the breakdown of Nicholson's marriage to Barbara Hepworth. In 1958 he left St Ives and returned to the Ticino in Switzerland, where he had spent the early years of his marriage to Winifred Nicholson in the 1920s, now with his new wife, Felicitas Vogler. There he would live the next 13 years before returning alone to England, living from 1971 to 1974 at Great Shelford, near Cambridge, coinciding with the last years of Jim Ede at Kettles Yard, the home of much of his earlier work. Eventually he returned to Hampstead.

The exhibition has been selected by Peter Khoroche, the author of a recent book, Ben Nicholson: drawings and painted reliefs, published by Lund Humphries. The exhibition will be accompanied by a well illustrated catalogue with a new essay by Peter Khoroche, who will be giving a series of lunchtime talks and exhibition tours during August

Location and opening hours
Kettle's Yard is located at the intersection of Castle Street and Northampton Street. The Gallery entrance is via Castle Street, which is a few minutes' walk from Magdalene Bridge.
Summer opening (30 March - 26 August 2002)
Tuesday-Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays 1.30-4.30pm

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