Welcome to my website.  As well as being a means of increasing my own profile as art historian, journalist and art writer, its aim is to help promote the reputation and memory of the British abstract artist Ben Nicholson (1894 to 1982), whose biographer I am.

A leading light in British avant-garde movement from the 1930s until the 1960s – indeed probably the leading light due to his role in persuading the great Piet Mondrian and Naum Gabo to come and live in this country during the war years - Nicholson has, since his death, been almost entirely eclipsed by his two contemporaries, Henry Moore and Nicholson’s second wife, Barbara Hepworth.

This year, the 30th anniversary of his death, Nicholson is being celebrated by two exhibitions in London, alongside Picasso at Tate Britain, and in tandem with Mondrian at the Courtauld Galleries. Together they go some way towards remedying the situation, but, to my mind, nothing like far enough.

In this website, I will post information on any exhibitions or news stories relating to Ben Nicholson and his contemporaries, while campaigning in his interests.  Both Moore and Hepworth’s homes have been made into museums.  In Hepworth’s case, a second museum opened in her hometown of Wakefield only last year. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if one of Nicholson’s homes or studios – whether in Hampstead, or St Ives, could be acquired either by the state of by the local council, and restored back to how it was when Nicholson was in his prime?