Under the influence of the Dutch pioneer of abstract art, Piet Mondrian, Nicholson became the most uncompromising British modernist. Between 1933 and 1945 he investigated form and space through abstract arrangements of circles and rectangles. Here, the overall effect is of lightness and clarity. The dark passages are surrounded with lighter hues and the large rectangle at the right is pierced by a white block. The 'Two Forms' of the title float before a field of bands graded from off-white to blue-grey.