Ben Nicholson, OM (1894-1982) was a British painter of abstract compositions. His first notable work was following a meeting with the playwright J. M. Barrie on holiday in Rustington, Sussex, in 1904. As a result of this meeting, Barrie used a drawing by Nicholson as the base for a poster for the play Peter Pan; his father William designed some of the sets and costumes. In London, Nicholson met the sculptors Barbara Hepworth (to whom he was married from 1938 to 1951) and Henry Moore. On visits to Paris he met Mondrian, whose work in the neoplastic style was to influence him in an abstract direction, and Picasso, whose cubism would also find its way into his work. His gift, however, was the ability to incorporate these European trends into a new style that was recognizably his own. He first visited St Ives, Cornwall, in 1928 with his fellow painter Christopher Wood, where he met the fisherman and painter, Alfred Wallis. In Paris in 1933 he made his first wood relief, White Relief, which contained only right angles and circles. In 1937 he was one of the editors of Circle, an influential monograph on constructivism. A retrospective exhibition of his work was shown at the Tate Gallery in London in 1955. Offered here is an EXTREMELY RARE etching from the 1960 portfolio 21 ETCHINGS and POEMS. This etching project, possibly the first of its kind in the United States, joined two creative disciplines–art and poetry. Poets and artists invited for this historic collaboration worked in the almost forgotten tradition of the Book of Kells and William Blake’s Illuminated poems. Each print closely integrates text and image, including a poem written in the hand of its author and imagery created through a wide range of innovative print techniques by an artist. For the poets who transferred their poems, in their own handwriting, onto the copper plate, this was an arduous, but exhilarating experience; a slip of tool meant beginning anew as they wrote backwards from a mirror image. Ben Nicholson's etching appears on the same plate as the poem by Sir Herbert Read. Published in a signed edition of 50 plus 12 artist proofs. Some of the artists who participated were Pierre Alechinsky, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Jacques Lipchitz, Ben Nicholson, I. Rice Pereira etc. Some of the poets were William Carlos Williams, Dylan Thomas, Frank O'Hara, Thomas Merton, Peter Viereck, Theodore Roethke etc. This particular print from this project is a proof original etching, never signed or numbered. Initiated by artist Peter Grippe, director of the renowned Atelier 17 print workshop, and the result of nearly ten years of effort, 21 Etchings and Poems is not only a landmark of mid-20th century American print publishing, but is unique in its inclusion of writers and artists from across the spectrum of 1950s cultural production." The etchings were published by The Anderson-Lamb Printing Company. This etching "proof" comes from Anderson-Lamb and was never used. To the best of our knowledge it is the only unsigned etching from this project that survived unsigned. Plate size of Nicholson etching is approx. 5-1/2 x 7 in., poem plate size is about 6 x 6.5 in., paper size about 19-3/4 x 17 in. Printed on thick paper. Condition of printed area is very good. Well away from images there are a few age spots. This has been in storage for many years. Extremely RARE!.

Condition of printed area is very good. Well away from images there are a few age spots. This has been in storage for many years.