Beschreibung:

mixed media and collage on board 17.7cm x 7.9cm (7in x 3.25in) Provenance: Acquired from the artist by Jake Nicholson and thence by descent to the present owner. Oh Boy! is at once an immensely fun work of art made by the artist for his young son, whilst also being an important example of how Ben Nicholson progressed towards the pioneering reliefs for which he is acclaimed. Nicholson is remembered for his sense of humour and playfulness, which formed the basis of his relationship with his oldest son Jake. In 1934 Ben wrote to Winifred ‘Jake and I have such a good and easy contact, I do enjoy him enormously and always have but now very especially – and I know in return I can give him endless things.’ (letter from Ben Nicholson to Winifred Nicholson of 12 April 1934 quoted in Andrew Nicholson, Unknown Colour: Paintings, Letters, Writings by Winifred Nicholson Faber & Faber, London, 1987, p. 146). In 1988 Jake affectionately recalled his father’s ‘jokey side’ as borne out in illustrated letters featuring dogs called Booboo or Ponto and horses called George or Rufus, who also appeared in paintings. (Jake Nicholson, ‘Ben Nicholson’s Fabrics’, The Nicholsons: A Story of Four People and Their Designs, York City Art Gallery, 1988, exh. cat., p. 38). Jake explained ‘he would build up a serious comment about art or life, then would suddenly pull the rug from under your feet with a pithy joke – perhaps about ginger biscuits.’ (Jake Nicholson, op.cit., p. 39). In Oh Boy! two collaged figures are formed from simple elements as if the result of a game. One is presented within a rectangle, like a goalkeeper to the other, at whose foot a ball is seen moving at speed. The moment of sporting drama is encapsulated in the title, written at the centre right. It is known that Ben and Jake enjoyed playing football together, not least due to a letter recounting a visit they paid to the artists Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp in 1935, in which Ben wrote ‘Jake & I played a good deal of football all over Meudon.’ (letter from Ben Nicholson to Barbara Hepworth of 10 May 1935, quoted in ed. Lee Beard, Ben Nicholson Writings and Ideas, Lund Humphries, London, 2019, p. 121.) At the same time, Oh Boy! shows how Nicholson was exploring the visual and structural possibilities of working in three dimensions – here collaged, but soon to be carved. The simplification of the human form, the abstracted and graphic representation of facial features and the emphasis on the circle to convey rhythm all speak to his contemporary, more serious concerns. Planes of colour in a palette dominated by black, white and red illustrate opposing team strips as well as emphasising a sense of surface. Nicholson made his first relief in December 1933 whilst in Paris visiting Winifred and their children. He reported this in a letter to Barbara Hepworth a day later, in which he wrote ‘I carved it all day long, it…looks like a primitive game. Jake and Kate came in at various stages and we rolled a marble about it.’ (letter of 12 December 1933 as quoted in Jeremy Lewison, Ben Nicholson Tate Gallery, London, 1993, p. 216 in entry for cat.no. 49). Thus Jake was present at the moment of this breakthrough in International Modernism, which even so, father, son and daughter were able to turn into a game. We are grateful to Dr Lee Beard for his assistance in cataloguing this work.