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Overview
This work by Ben Nicholson was painted in 1947. The initials J.L.M. in the title refer to the English architect, Sir Leslie Martin, to whom the painting is dedicated. Martin was one of the editors, along with Naum Gabo and Nicholson, of the publication Circle, an international survey of constructivist art. The painting is in oil, which has been laid down in flat areas, and over which Nicholson has inscribed geometric shapes and lines in pencil.
Abstract images
One of the first English abstract artists, Nicholson began producing his refined geometrical paintings in the 1930s. Painting (J.L.M.) February 2-47 is an asymmetrical composition in which lines are balanced by large planes of soft, luminous colour, accented in lavender, deep red, and dark blue. Nicholson's concern for the relationship between the surface and the edges of his paintings led him to make his own unobtrusive frames. The frame for Painting (J.L.M.) February 2-47 is probably one.
A collection of modern British art
Painting (J.L.M.) February 2-47 was purchased in 1970 as part of an effort to strengthen the National Art Gallery's collection of twentieth-century British modernist painters. A watercolour by Alfred Wallis, the Cornish ex-fisherman whose naïve paintings had a significant impact on Nicholson, was purchased at the same time. Other acquisitions in this area include works by Victor Pasmore, John Piper, Christopher Wood, Barbara Hepworth, and Eileen Agar. Painting (J.L.M.) February 2-47 is a good example of the British abstract movement that was an important source for New Zealand artists working through the issues of abstraction in the late 1940s and 1950s.