Feb 2-54
- Artist: Ben Nicholson OM
- Date: 1954
- Medium: Oil paint and graphite on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 733 x 803 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Feb 2‑54” by Ben Nicholson, painted in 1954 in St Ives. It’s a still life, one of his early‑fifties pieces that plays with overlapping forms. You can see transparent layers that are given weight by accents of colour and pencil shading. Nicholson was building on his mid‑thirties practice, letting earlier shapes bleed into new canvases. The surface is smooth—the paint has been rubbed down repeatedly—and you’ll notice both thin, freely applied washes and more precise, opaque touches. In 1954 he also received the Ulisse Award at the Venice Biennale. The painting measures about 97 by 58 centimetres, and the canvas bears the inscription “Feb 2‑54 Ben Nicholson” on its top turnover. It was first shown at the Spring Exhibition at Penwith Gallery in March 1954. The piece was bequeathed in 1977 by Miss E.M. Hodgkins.
See it in person
Feb 2-54 is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
