Lot 176: NIGEL HENDERSON

NIGEL HENDERSON 1917 - 1985 UNTITLED collage and photogram on board 50 by 40cm.; 19¾ by 15¾in. Executed in 1976.

The Mayor Gallery, London, where acquired by the present owner in September 2003

The present work and lots 177 - 179 are from the Lovely Linda Series.

Nigel Henderson was a documentary and experimental photographer and artist. Through his mother, Wyn Henderson, who managed Guggenheim Jeune for Peggy Guggenheim, he met at an early age leading figures of the avant-garde such as Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp. In 1938, Henderson exhibited two collages at Guggenheim Jeune alongside Ernst, Braque, Picasso and Gris. After service in the war, Henderson studied at the Slade School of Fine Art where he met Eduardo Paolozzi, William Turnbull and Richard Hamilton. With Paolozzi, he formed the forward thinking Independent Group which explored contemporary culture.

The diversity of his photographs ranges from documentary scenes of the East End to experiments with collage and the physicality of the photographic medium, as exemplified by the Lovely Linda Series.