Ben Nicholson has long been recognised as one of the key figures in British modernism, and A Continuous Line is the most significant showing of his art in the last 14 years, according to Celia Davies, the De La Warr's head of exhibitions.

Best known for his abstract paintings and reliefs of the 1930s, the exhibition, which spans a period from 1922 to 1958, aims to reveal a view of the artist "quite different from the established one".

Curated by Chris Stephens, head of displays at Tate Britain, it contains 72 works. These include landscapes made in Cumberland and Cornwall, abstract paintings and reliefs made during the Second World War, when Nicholson was living in St Ives with his second wife, the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, and the Cubist still-lifes of the 1940s and 1950s that secured his reputation internationally.

"All the works are really beautiful for one reason or another," says Celia. "There's a lot of his drawing in the show - this is where the exhibition takes its title from. You can see in his drawing a thread that runs throughout his work.

"There is also a very beautiful painting of Barbara Hepworth, which I think is a key piece, and an abstract white relief from 1935 - the year the De La Warr Pavilion was built."

The De La Warr - itself a modernist icon - is the only place in the South East where people will be able to see the exhibition. Organisers made a conscious decision not to take it to London, although it is, Celia says, of the standard you would expect to see in the capital. "The exhibition was designed to be shown in the regions,"

she adds. It opened in Kendal, Cumbria, where Nicholson lived with his first wife. After Bexhill, will transfer to St Ives, in Cornwall, in January.

Nione Meakin n Chris Stephens will give a talk, explaining how he put the exhibition together at 2pm on Saturday, October 25. Tickets cost £5, booking essential.

  • Open every day from 10am - 6pm, tickets cost £5.50/£3.50. Call 01424 229111