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ARTIST IN FOCUS Winifred Nicholson: Music of Colour 29 September - 21 December 2012 Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
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a picture can be a lamp in one’s home, not merely a window 1937 Winifred Nicholson’s paintings are sensitive studies of colour and light which capture the mood of landscapes, people and the flowers in each place and moment she painted. She worked quickly, usually completing a painting in a single sitting. She frequently painted family and friends, and the landscapes of Cumberland, Scotland and Greece, although she is best known for her paintings of flowers. In 1974 she wrote, ‘I paint flowers, but they are not botanical or photographic flowers...The flowers are sparks of light, built of and thrown out into the air as rainbows are thrown, in an arc.’ Focusing on paintings by Winifred Nicholson (1893–1981) in the Kettle’s Yard collection, this ARTIST IN FOCUS display will bring together pieces from the collection, rare archive material and a number of other works to offer a fresh look at one of the most important artists in the collection.
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Moving between Cumberland, London and Paris, Winifred Nicholson was very much involved in the avant-garde in the 20s and 30s. In London she was a member of the Seven & Five Society and Circle; in Paris, Constantin Brancusi and Piet Mondrian were among her friends. Winifred kept a painting by Mondrian on the wall at her Cumberland home Banks Head, and sent him paint supplies from England. She continued to travel extensively throughout her life, as far as Puerto Rico or Morocco, but Greece and Scotland were favourite destinations for painting trips because of the distinctive quality of light and colour. She died in 1981. In 1979 she wrote “what I have tried to do is paint pictures that call down colour, so that a picture can be a lamp in one’s home, not merely a window.” Kettle’s Yard founder H.S. (Jim) Ede met Winifred Nicholson in the early 20’s, and became a friend and supporter; he said Winifred ‘taught him much about the fusing of art and life’. Jim collected her work for more than forty years, and their correspondence continued throughout Winifred’s life. The relationship with Kettle’s Yard has continued with exhibitions of her work in 1972, 1987 and 2001. Kettle’s Yard holds the largest number of works by Winifred Nicholson in any public collection. These works will be joined by two paintings generously loaned by Girton College, Cambridge. Winifred Nicholson’s grandmother was one of the founders of the College and her sister was the first woman to study agricultural science at the University of Cambridge. The exhibition will be accompanied by a new publication on Winifred Nicholson. Introduced by Kettle’s Yard curator Elizabeth Fisher, the book includes over 40 reproductions and draws together highlights from the artist’s own writings, including correspondence with key figures such as Jim Ede, fellow collector Helen Sutherland, and the poet Kathleen Raine. p.t.o For further information please contact Susie Biller at Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge, Castle Street, Cambridge CB3 0AQ U.K. tel 01223 748100 • fax 01223 324377 • susie@kettlesyard.cam.ac.uk • www.kettlesyard.co.uk
Editors notes Images are available to download for press use here: http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/download/ Biography Rosa Winifred Roberts was born on 21 December 1893. Her grandfather, painter George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle, was an early influence and Winifred spent much of her childhood at the family estates of Castle Howard, Yorkshire, and Naworth Castle, Cumberland. From 1912-19, she studied and then assisted at the Byam Shaw School of Art. In 1914 she exhibited at the Royal Academy, the first of over 200 group exhibitions she participated in during her lifetime. A family trip to India in 1919/20 was pivotal for opening her eyes to ‘how eastern art uses lilac to create sunlight’. Her return marked a whirlwind year – she met Ben Nicholson in the spring and they married that November. They divided their time between Villa Capriccio, above Lake Lugano in Switzerland, and London and Cumberland. In 1924/25 both Nicholsons were elected to the Seven & Five Society and exhibited regularly. They befriended Jim Ede, then at the Tate Gallery, and his wife Helen. Winifred’s first child, Jake, was born in 1927, followed by Kate in 1929 and Andrew in 1931. With the help of a nanny, Winifred juggled ‘the twin dragons of art and life’ and continued painting daily. When Ben left Winifred in 1931, she moved with the children to the Isle of Wight, then Cornwall and settled in Paris in 1932. By 1935, her artistic circle of friends included Hans and Sophie Tauber-Arp, Piet Mondrian, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti and Constantin Brancusi. In 1937, Winifred published ‘Unknown Colour’ in Circle, a book of constructivist art, where she outlined her theories on the visible colour spectrum. Having returned to England in 1938, Winifred made Cumberland her home during the war years; she farmed goats and bees, ran a small school and painted when she could. Despite this isolation, in 1944 she published ‘Liberation of Colour’ in the World Review, featuring a chart of the rainbow spectrum and her imaginative tonal variations. Winifred travelled extensively during the 1950s and ‘60s with friends and family; the Scottish Isles and Greece were favourite destinations but she also visited Ireland, Italy, Puerto Rico, Tunisia and Morocco. She made a commissioned work, now destroyed, for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and had her first solo show at Kettle’s Yard in 1971. The use of prisms from 1975 aided her continuing search for a colour somewhere between violet and red. She died on 5 March 1981 at Bankshead, Cumberland.