1933 (milk and plain chocolate)
- Artist: Ben Nicholson OM
- Date: 1933
- Medium: Oil paint and gesso on hardboard
- Dimensions: unconfirmed: 1350 x 820 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “1933 (milk and plain chocolate)” by Ben Nicholson OM. Painted in 1933 with oil paint and gesso on hardboard, the work is a large portrait‑format canvas that feels almost like a stage set. Nicholson places circles, triangles and other geometric shapes on a deep, milk‑chocolate coloured background, creating a sense of rhythm and movement. He punctuates the composition with bright blue and red dots and straight as well as arcing scored white lines. Those lines are produced by scratching through the paint to reveal the white layer beneath, a technique that emphasises the painting’s materiality and its status as an object in its own right.
In 1934 Nicholson joked that his process was a way of making “a living thing as nice as a poodle with two shining black eyes.” The piece reflects his Parisian influences – Calder, Arp and especially Joan Miró – and prefigures the sculptural reliefs he would later produce. It was shown in the 1934 Unit One exhibition at the Mayor Gallery, a pivotal moment that introduced British audiences to modernist abstraction. This painting is on long‑term loan from a private collection, and it remains a striking example of Nicholson’s blend of geometric abstraction and playful gesture.
See it in person
1933 (milk and plain chocolate) is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
