Nigel Henderson 1917-1985
The important art critic, David Sylvester, described Henderson as 'a seminal figure in post-war British art' and 'an artist who took photographs'.
Known for his documentary and experimental photography and imaginative use of collage, Henderson was a founding member of the Independent Group in 1952, with which he regularly exhibited, notably in This Is Tomorrow at the Whitechapel Art Gallery (1956).
Nigel Henderson was a major figure in the radicalisaton of post-war British art. Placing photography and collage at the centre of his work, he was a key part of the Independent Group along with friends such as Edouardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull. His work is comparatively rare as much of it is in museums, including Tate which holds a major archive of his photographs.
He studied biology at Chelsea Polytechnic in London and then worked as an assistant to Helmuth Ruhemann. In the later 1930s he produced paintings influenced by Yves Tanguy, as well as collages. After serving as a pilot for coastal command in World War II, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. There he befriended Eduardo Paolozzi, with whom he visited Paris, meeting Brancusi, Léger, Giacometti, Braque and Arp.
After leaving the Slade he began to experiment with photography, and between 1949 and 1952 he took numerous documentary photographs of Bethnal Green in east London, where he was then living. In other photographs of the period he achieved unusual effects by altering negatives or by placing objects directly on light-sensitive paper to create photograms. He was associated with the Independent Group on its foundation in 1952, and with Paolozzi and others he participated in the Parallel of Life and Art exhibition at the ICA in London in 1953 and also in the pioneering Pop art exhibition This Is Tomorrow at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London in 1956. At the latter he showed the large and disturbing altered photograph Head of a Man (1956; London, Tate).
After his first major one-man show at the ICA in 1961, Henderson began colouring some of his photographs with paint, as in Plant Tantrums (1961; London, Tate). From 1965 to 1968 and from 1972 to 1982 he ran the photography department at the Norwich School of Art while continuing his own photographic work. He often produced works in series that were connected by a particular striking image, as in the Face at the Window series which he worked on from 1977 into the 1980s. This centred on the image of a bandaged face, which Henderson had found on a cigarette card. It was followed in the 1980s by the two series Heads in Blocks and Single Heads , in which he made different versions of a self-portrait image.
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Nigel HendersonHMS InvincibleGelatin Silver Print51 x 40 cms
20 1/8 x 15 3/4 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (British Oak, Shop Front), 1949-1956Vintage Gelatin Silver Print16.6 x 21.6 cms
6 1/2 x 8 1/2 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Browsing, Shop Front), 1949-1956Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.8 x 20.3 cms
8 1/4 x 8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (The Warren), 1949-1956Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.2 x 25.3 cms
8 x 10 ins -
Nigel HendersonBombed Side Street House in East End, 1949-53Photograph25 x 20 cms
9 7/8 x 7 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonRubble, 1949-53Photograph25 x 20 cms
9 7/8 x 7 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonGuy Fawkes, 1949-54Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.2 x 25 cms
8 x 9 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Bicycle boy) , 1949-54Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.3 cms
8 x 10 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Children with dog - PUNK), 1949-54Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.2 x 25.4 cms
8 x 10 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Samuels Boys with Watering can and bike) , 1949-54Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.2 x 25.6 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonShop Entrance, 1950Distressed Photograph50 x 33 cms
19 3/4 x 13 ins -
Nigel HendersonBenjamin Myer Levin, 1951Photograph19 x 31 cms
7 1/2 x 12 1/4 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled, 1952-1953Photograph on board.99 x 136 cms
39 x 53 1/2 ins -
Nigel HendersonBuilding a stage, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.5 cms
8 x 10 ins -
Nigel HendersonChildren's lunch 3, 1953Vintage Gelatin SIlver Print20.3 x 25.7 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonChildren's lunch 6, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.7 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonCoronation at Side St. Bethnal Green., 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print16.6 x 21.6 cms
6 1/2 x 8 1/2 ins -
Nigel HendersonCoronation Celebration 2 , 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.7 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonCoronation Celebration 3, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.6 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonCoronation, Bth. Grn., 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.5 cms
8 x 10 ins -
Nigel HendersonCoronation, Four Kids. Poplar, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print25.3 x 20.4 cms
10 x 8 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonDog portrait. Coronation, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 24.5 cms
8 x 9 5/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonDriffield Rd. 3, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.7 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonHooke House. Proof., 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.4 x 25.7 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonLittle Queen, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print25.8 x 20.3 cms
10 1/8 x 8 ins -
Nigel HendersonOld Ford Road, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.2 x 25.4 cms
8 x 10 ins -
Nigel HendersonPlaying on Stage, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print16.6 x 21.6 cms
6 1/2 x 8 1/2 ins -
Nigel HendersonThe Henderson's house (Coronation), 1953Gelatin Silver Print25.2 x 20.1 cms
9 7/8 x 7 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print19 x 25.6 cms
7 1/2 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled, 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 20.1 cms
8 x 7 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Coronation street party 01) , 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.6 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Coronation), 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.7 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Coronation, Booth) , 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.6 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Coronation, Eating Ice Cream), 1953Gelatin Silver Print25.2 x 20.1 cms
9 7/8 x 7 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Coronation, Elizabeth), 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.6 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Coronation, Street Party 03), 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print25.2 x 20.1 cms
9 7/8 x 7 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Coronation, Street Party 05) , 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.6 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonThe best days of your life, 1975Collage on card23 x 30 cms
9 1/16 x 11 12/16 ins -
Nigel HendersonBehind the Face of..., 1979Mixed media collage with hand colouring on chipboard61 x 60.7 x 0.8 cms
24 1/8 x 23 7/8 x 1/4 insSigned and dated on verso -
Nigel HendersonThe Stroke, 1980Hand coloured photo collage mounted on board60.5 x 50 cms
23 7/8 x 19 3/4 insSigned and dated on verso and inscribed with a poem -
Nigel HendersonFrom the Face at the Window series, c. 1978Hand coloured photo24.5 x 20 cms
9 5/8 x 7 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonYoung man at the cinema in the 30s, c. 1978Hand coloured photo40.3 x 50.8 cms
15 7/8 x 20 ins -
Nigel HendersonFrom Face at the Window series, c.1978Hand coloured photo
25.3 x 20.2 cms
10 x 8 ins -
Nigel HendersonDouble-sided screen, circa 1970Collage198 x 76 cms
78 x 29 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonShop, 1949-53Photograph19 x 25 cms
7 1/2 x 9 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonTattoo Shop, 1949-53Photograph25 x 20 cms
9 7/8 x 7 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Coronation street party 02) , 1953Vintage Gelatin Silver Print20.3 x 25.6 cms
8 x 10 1/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonUntitled (Coronation Time), 1953Gelatin Silver Print20.1 x 25.2 cms
7 7/8 x 9 7/8 ins -
Nigel HendersonEncounter, 1961Hand coloured photograph mounted on card35 x 44 cms
13 3/4 x 17 3/8 insInitialed on recto. Titled and dated on verso with 'ENCOUNTER CIRCA 1961'
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Coronation Street Parties (1953)
Vintage Photographs by Nigel Henderson 25 Apr - 13 May 2023James Hyman Gallery is pleased to present an online exhibition of early works by Nigel Henderson that depict street parties in East London at the time of the Coronation of...Read more -
Telling Stories
Picture Post and its Legacy 29 Mar - 10 Jun 2022The exhibition presents some of the key photographers of Picture Post magazine as well as a curated selection of some later British photographers who built on this storytelling or documentary...Read more -
Modern British Art 2022
29 Mar - 31 May 2022
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British Art Fair 2022
29 Sep - 2 Oct 2022Founded in 1988, British Art Fair is the only fair dedicated to Modern and contemporary British art. Each year, fifty leading dealers exhibit paintings, drawings,...Read more -
Masterpiece 2022
Around Pop: British Pop Art and its Legacy 29 Jun - 6 Jul 2022We are pleased to present a specially curated exhibition which addresses British Pop Art and its Legacy. The presentation begins with three of the founding...Read more -
Photo London 2022
Three Special Presentations 11 - 15 May 2022This year our ambitious presentation is in three parts. The Countess of Castiglione. The Creation of a Legend. We are delighted to present the very...Read more -
London Art Fair 2022
20 - 24 Apr 2022We are looking forward to exhibiting at the rescheduled London Art Fair in April. Our specially curated presentation will focus on important Modern British paintings...Read more
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British Art Fair 2022
29 Sep - 2 Oct 2022Founded in 1988, British Art Fair is the only fair dedicated to Modern and contemporary British art. Each year, fifty leading dealers exhibit paintings, drawings,...Read more -
Masterpiece 2022
Around Pop: British Pop Art and its Legacy 29 Jun - 6 Jul 2022We are pleased to present a specially curated exhibition which addresses British Pop Art and its Legacy. The presentation begins with three of the founding...Read more -
Photo London 2022
Three Special Presentations 11 - 15 May 2022This year our ambitious presentation is in three parts. The Countess of Castiglione. The Creation of a Legend. We are delighted to present the very...Read more -
London Art Fair 2022
20 - 24 Apr 2022We are looking forward to exhibiting at the rescheduled London Art Fair in April. Our specially curated presentation will focus on important Modern British paintings...Read more