May 1955 (Gwithian)

During Ben Nicholson’s second decade at St. Ives, in the later 1940s and 1950s, he produced a group of still-life paintings that rank among his most important works. This particularly fine example was painted in 1955 and develops concerns he had been engaging with since the early 1930s: fusing abstract sculptural or architectonic qualities with a commitment to representation, especially the still-life tradition. Gwithian is a village, a few miles east of St. Ives, where some of the earliest Neolithic remains in Cornwall have been found. The title suggests not only Nicholson’s immediate sense of place in Cornwall but also a feeling for the timelessness of art.

Gallery Label for installation of YCBA collection, 2020

Credit Line: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection