Ben Nicholson, O.M. (1894-1982)

In earlier works Nicholson had used magenta as small patches of colour, but in the present work it is the dominant pigment. In an undated letter at the end of the 1940s, Winifred Nicholson wrote to Ben Nicholson about his use of magenta: 'I don't know whether I can introduce you to my family friend magenta - she's a person like blue and yellow, not just a transition between the wide intervals as you use her - the sort of minor key between two chords that resolves them - she's a person, very alive and potent and fugitive and transparent' (J. Lewison, op. cit., p. 237).