Simon Hepworth Nicholson (3 October 1934 – 17 January 1990) was a British painter and sculptor. He was the son of sculptor

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...

and her second husband, artist Ben Nicholson. Nicholson attended

Dartington Hall School Dartington Hall in Dartington, near Totnes, Devon, England, is an historic house and country estate of dating from medieval times. The group of late 14th century buildings are Grade I listed; described in Pevsner's Buildings of England as "on ...

before studying sculpture at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

from 1953 to 1954 and then

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, from 1954 to 1957. Like his parents, Nicholson lived and worked in St Ives from 1960 to 1964. He moved to the United States in 1964 to teach, first at the

Moore College of Art and Design Moore College of Art & Design is a Private college, private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its undergraduate programs are available only for female students, but its other educational programs, including graduate programs, are co-ed ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and later at the

University of Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. During this time, he had solo exhibitions in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. Nicholson returned to England in 1971 where he was an

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

(OU) lecturer until 1989. He became chairman of the Art and Environment course at the OU, which developed into a popular practical arts module (TAD292). The associated week long summer school achieved some notoriety. After his death, a

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

exhibition at Falmouth College of Arts and

Dartington Hall Dartington Hall in Dartington, near Totnes, Devon, England, is an historic house and country estate of dating from medieval times. The group of late 14th century buildings are Grade I listed; described in Pevsner's Buildings of England as "on ...

was held in 1999. In addition to Simon and his parents, the Nicholson family also produced four other artists, his grandparents William Nicholson and

Mabel Pryde Mabel Scott Lauder Pryde (12 February 1871 – July 1918) was a Scottish artist, the wife of artist William Nicholson, and the mother of artists Ben Nicholson and Nancy Nicholson and the architect Christopher 'Kit' Nicholson. Life She was ...

, aunt

Nancy Nicholson Annie "Nancy" Mary Pryde Nicholson (1899–1977) was an English painter and fabric designer. Early life Born Annie Mary Pryde Nicholson, she was the only daughter of the artists Sir William Nicholson and Mabel Pryde. She had three brothers, ar ...

, sister Rachel and half-sister Kate Nicholson, as well as his architect uncle

Christopher Nicholson Christopher David George "Kit" Nicholson (16 December 1904 – 28 July 1948) was a British architect and designer closely associated with the early Modern Movement in Britain. His most notable works of the 1930s were comparable to the advanc ...

Interests and influence

Nicholson's work is characterised by an interest in the texture of different surfaces and materials, often taking the landscape as its starting point. His "Theory of Loose Parts", outlined in a 1971 essay, has been influential in

playwork Playwork is the work of creating and maintaining spaces for children to play. The theory and practice of playwork recognises that children's play should ideally be "freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated." It is the job of ...

, early education and interactive installations of all kinds. He summarised the theory as: "In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it." Nicholson's definition of loose parts was broad. In a playwork context, it might include: * "natural resources – such as straw, mud and pine cones" * "building materials and tools – planks, nails, hammers" * "scrap materials – old tyres, off-cuts of guttering" * "bark which can be both safe playground surfacing and a loose part" * "and, most essentially, random found objects." The definition could be even broader:

There is evidence that all children love to interact with variables such as materials and shapes; smells and other physical phenomena, such as electricity, magnetism and gravity; media such as gases and fluids; sounds, music and motion; chemical interactions, cooking and fire; and other people, and animals, plants, words, concepts and ideas. With all these things all children love to play, experiment, discover and invent and have fun. All these things have one thing in common, which is variables or "loose parts".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholson, Simon 1934 births 1990 deaths Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 20th-century English painters English male painters St Ives artists Moore College of Art and Design faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Simon People educated at Dartington Hall School 20th-century English male artists