"Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) was one of the most radical British artists of the twentieth century and the leader of the modern movement in Britain between the wars. Most famous for his abstract paintings and reliefs of the 1930s, Nicholson began as a figurative painter and had a deep and enduring relationship with the English landscape. Published to accompany a major touring exhibition, this book explores Nicholson's career from 1920 to when he left Britain to live in Switzerland in 1958. It concentrates on three periods and groups of work that have been neglected for many years: landscapes made in Cumberland and Cornwall in the late 1920S; landscapes, abstract paintings and reliefs made alongside each other in St. Ives during World War II; and the Cubist still-lifes made between 1945-58 that secured Nicholson's international reputation. Essays by leading critics and extensive illustrations cast both Nicholson and British art of the period in a new light."--Jacket.