Art of William Nicholson

The informal still-lifes, understated portraits and strikingly 'minimalist' landscapes of Sir William Nicholson have long been admired, but since the artist's death in 1949 his reputation has tended to be overshadowed by that of his son Ben, Britain's foremost modernist painter. In the past decades critical responses to William's art have alternated between astonishment at pictures that are often as fresh and glowing as the day they were painted, and bewilderment that a twentieth-century artist could be seemingly untouched by revolutions in art from impressionism on. Published to coincide with the first full retrospective in almost a quarter of a century - and the first in London since 1942 - this catalogue contains new texts by leading specialists on the many facets of Nicholson's work. A series of scholarly texts and catalogue entries accompany the broadest display of his painting ever published in colour, as well as an account of the artist's well-known and considerable body of graphic work. An essential purchase for anyone interested in British art.