Ben Nicholson was born in 1894, in Eight Bells, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England. He studied, for a short time, at the Slade School 1910-11. His first solo show was held at the Adelphi Gallery in London in 1922. In 1937 he was editor of Circle, and from 1939 to 1958 lived in Cornwall.

In 1951 he was commissioned to paint a mural for the Time-Life Building at the Festival of Britain; in 1954 he had a retrospective exhibition at the Venice Biennale, in 1955 at the Tate (another was held in 1969). Nicholson received numerous awards during his lifetime, including the First Prize for painting at Carnegie's 39th International Exhibition (1952) and the Order of Merit from HM the Queen (1968).

After his death in 1982 major exhibitions were held at the Fundación Juan March, Madrid touring to the Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (1987) and the Tate Gallery, London travelling to the Musée d'Art Moderne, St. Etienne(1993-4).