May 1956 (hendrifter)

By the mid-1950s Ben Nicholson had returned again to making carved reliefs, though ‘May 1956 (hendrifter)’ is less austere than his white circle and square reliefs of the 1930s, and its gentle tones and more rounded shapes evoke the landscape and ancient stones of West Penwith where he was a leading figure of the artistic community. He frequently used these earthy tones, scraping and repainting the surface so that it appeared ‘impossible to separate form from colour or colour from form.’