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I never went to a museum show with a more sensitive and agreeable companion than Graham Nickson, my friend for more than forty years. He had the subtlest observations on whatever art we were seeing. Although an actively exhibiting artist, he found time to take over an established art school in NYC, teach students, put on contemporary exhibitions throughout the season, and sponsor one of the best lecture series on old and newer art. He was also a grand chef!
I gave several talks at the Studio School. I was also invited to give the commencement address to the first graduating class of graduate students. But what to say to young artists soon to be out on their own? I told them there may come a time when they find themselves doing work they had not expected, even going in a new direction that they felt they could not accept. I reminded them of the time Bill de Kooning, in the early 1950s, ran into a complete painting block while working on the first and largest of his most radical “Woman” paintings (now in MoMA). He stopped painting for over a year, and only began again when Meyer Schapiro visited his studio, saw the painting that had stumped him, and suggested it was not only finished, but it was his new style.
As Graham was also very interested in the sciences, we may consider a parallel situation in physics. This involved Einstein, who back in the day was working on an equation expressing the structure of the universe. His equation told him that the universe was dynamic, not static, and possibly expanding. But Einstein did not like this idea, and introduced a counter-force to make the universe static, as he thought it should be. Some years later, astronomers on the West Coast independently discovered that the universe was indeed expanding. Einstein later called this incident his greatest error. He had been, like de Kooning, unable, in this instance, to accept his own most radical views.
It was Graham Nickson’s broad interests that made it possible to bring this comparison forward. He was a unique figure on the New York art scene and we will miss him.
Carroll Janis is an art historian and former director of the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York. He has taught at Columbia University, Hunter College, and the School of Visual Arts, and has contributed to publications such as Art in America.