Ben Nicholson: Paintings, Reliefs, Drawings

Artist: Ben Nicholson 
Author: Herbert Read 
Publisher: Lund Humphries 
Date: 1948 
Condition: A first edition copy of this volume, internally clean and unmarked, with the bookseller's sticker for Alec Tiranti Ltd on the inside front cover. The linen wrapped boards show a little discolouration, and it is complete with the original dust wrapper. The wrapper is now very fragile, grubby to the edges and missing two sections to the back and spine, also a tear to the bottom front corner and two small sections of wrapper spine detached but present.

This major volume was the first substantial publication on Ben Nicholson and was part of a series of important monographs on leading contemporary British artist published by Lund Humphries, alongside Henry Moore (1944), Paul Nash (1948) and Barbara Hepworth (1952).

Read's writing on his friend's work is interesting and makes strong connections between BN and the continental avant-garde and for a book of the period, the production values are pretty lavish. It also includes a bibliography, a biographical resume, the artist's own 'Notes on "Abstract" Art', and, for a little bit of continental appeal, the French translations of that and Read's introduction.

An essential for every professional working with Nicholson's paintings or reliefs, it is also accessible to anyone wanting to investigate the early phases of his career.