Oil paint and gesso on hardboard
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/ben-nicholson-om-1702" aria-label="More by Ben Nicholson OM" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Ben Nicholson OM</a>
1933 milk and plain chocolate
Lent from a private collection 2016
abstraction
ball
chocolate
cubist space
emotions, concepts and ideas
food and drink
formal qualities
geometric
movement
non-representational
objects
sports and games
<p>Here Nicholson floats circles, triangles and other shapes on a dark and milk chocolate coloured background. He creates a sense of rhythm and movement through the use of contrasting blue and red dots and straight and arcing scored white lines. These lines were produced by scratching through paint to reveal a white layer beneath. For Nicholson, this technique emphasised the painting’s materials and its status as an object in its own right. In 1934, he described his process as a way of creating ‘a living thing as nice as a poodle with two shining black eyes.’</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint gesso hardboard
13 May 2013 – 30 October 2022
2022-10-30
13 May 2013 – 30 October 2022
2022-10-30
2013-05-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-05-13
Gallery 33
Collection based display
26 October 2016 – 14 January 2018
2018-01-14
26 October 2016 – 5 March 2017
2017-03-05
2016-10-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2016-10-26
Paul Nash
Exhibition
31 October 2022
31 October 2022
2022-10-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-10-31
Gallery 2
Collection based display
1933 (milk and plain chocolate)
unconfirmed: 1350 × 820 mm
Lent from a private collection 2016
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>1933 (milk and plain chocolate) </i>is a large portrait-format painting in which circles, triangles and other forms float in the non-perspectival space of the two-tone brown ground which gives the work its subtitle. A sense of movement is created by the contrasting use of bright blue and red dots and the scored white lines which join the different elements in the composition. Unlike some of Nicholson’s other paintings from the same year (see, for example, <i>1933 [guitar] </i>[Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/nicholson-1933-guitar-n05125" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05125</span></a>] and <i>Jan 27 1933 </i>[Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/nicholson-jan-27-1933-t07595" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T07595</span></a>]) which show the influence of Georges Braque (1882–1963) and follow the palette of early cubism, <i>1933 (milk and plain chocolate)</i> reflected Nicholson’s more recent experiences in Paris where, as noted by the art historian Charles Harrison, ‘the work of [Alexander] Calder, [Jean] Arp and particularly [Joan] Mir<i>ó</i> provided a stimulus unlike any he had previously encountered’ (Harrison 1969, p.26). Harrison also related the circle forms in such works as <i>1933 (milk and plain chocolate)</i> to Nicholson’s ‘aptitude and enthusiasm for ball games’ (ibid.). Along with comparable works made in the same year, such as <i>1933 (hibiscus) </i>and <i>1933 (painting) </i>which feature a similar palette and the scored lines, <i>1933 (milk and plain chocolate)</i> precedes the artist’s relief works such as <i>1933 (6 circles) </i>as well as later, more geometric compositions such as <i>1945 (composition) </i>and <i>1945 (two circles)</i>. In 1932 Nicholson had begun sharing a studio with the sculptor Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975) and the years 1932–4, and the works both artists produced during this time, are characterised by their close working and personal relationship. Shared motifs or techniques include the use of dots or circles (Lewison 1993, p.214); while for Nicholson Hepworth’s influence is visible in the lines etched into the gesso of works such as <i>1933 (milk and plain chocolate) </i>that would develop into the three-dimensional, sculptural approach taken in his white relief series of paintings, such as <i>1934 (relief) </i>1934 [Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/nicholson-1934-relief-t02314" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T02314</span></a>]. </p>
<p>
<i>1933 (milk and plain chocolate) </i>was exhibited in the inaugural <i>Unit One </i>exhibition at the Mayor Gallery in London in 1934, which was organised by the artist Paul Nash and subsequently toured. This exhibition was the first showing of paintings and sculpture by a group of British artists explicitly dedicated to the modernist principles of abstraction or surrealism and works such as this provided the first glimpse of this type of modernist painting for many in Britain. The reception was often critical, however; writing about the exhibition Jan Gordon of the <i>Observer</i>, for instance, stated, ‘I cannot explain the title of this group of artists, sculptors and architects, for there appears to be little obvious unity or oneness about them’ and, of Nicholson’s work specifically, ‘imagination seems to have become little more than an unexciting ingenuity’ (<i>The</i> <i>Observer</i>,<i> </i>15 April 1934, p.16). Nevertheless, the exhibition has subsequently been recognised as a pivotal moment for the development of modern art in Britain, in which the works exhibited essentially introduced the way in which British artists were assimilating the varying styles, techniques and theories of continental painting and sculpture. Re-stagings of this group of works in 1978 at Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery and in 1984 at the Mayor Gallery, London both included <i>1933 (milk and plain chocolate)</i>.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Charles Harrison, <i>Ben Nicholson</i>, exhibition catalogue,<i> </i>Tate Gallery,<i> </i>London 1969.<br/>Jeremy Lewison, <i>Ben Nicholson</i>, exhibition catalogue,<i> </i>Tate Gallery, London 1993.</p>
<p>Inga Fraser<br/>July 2016</p>
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Summary
2018-07-05T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Here Nicholson floats circles, triangles and other shapes on a dark and milk chocolate coloured background. He creates a sense of rhythm and movement through the use of contrasting blue and red dots and straight and arcing scored white lines. These lines were produced by scratching through paint to reveal a white layer beneath. For Nicholson, this technique emphasised the painting’s materials and its status as an object in its own right. In 1934, he described his process as a way of creating ‘a living thing as nice as a poodle with two shining black eyes.’</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-10-14T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
abstraction ball chocolate cubist space emotions, concepts and ideas food and drink formal qualities geometric movement non-representational objects sports and games