Born to artistic parents, Ben Nicholson studied at the Slade School for a short time, but did not commit himself to painting until 1920. Beginning with landscapes and still-life, he gradually turned to abstract art, prints and posters, joining avant-garde groups, the Seven and Five Society, Unit One, and the Abstraction-Creation circle.
His paintings initially were Cubist representations of figurative objects, but under the influence of Modrian, Ben Nicholson began to favor non-objectivity and geometric pattern in his art, prints and posters.
After an earlier marriage, Ben Nicholson wed fellow artist Barbara Hepworth and moved to St. Ives, Cornwall in 1939 to found their well-known artists' colony, where he continued to create his art, prints and posters.