Remembering the ‘War Artist’
FROM Wednesday to March 5, 2017, London’s Tate Britain museum is honouring Paul Nash (18891946), known for his work as a war artist and as one of the key figures of 20th-century British art. The retrospective will explore the artist’s work from his early drawings through to his later visionary landscapes, inspired by Britain’s ancient past and by southern England.
The Paul Nash exhibition covers the British artist’s whole career, including early Symbolist watercolours, exploring the mystic force of trees, and his dramatic, scarred landscapes of World War I. In 1917, Nash became an Official War Artist, so named by the British government. One of his most famous works from the time is the iconic We Are Making A New World.
After the war, Nash devoted himself once again to landscapes, focusing on places of particular personal significance, notably Dymchurch on the south coast of England. This led to a series of paintings that includes The Shore (1923), which reflect his wartime experience.
In the 1930s, Nash moved towards Surrealist inspirations, reinterpreting classic British landscapes in a style that connected modernism with tradition. His paintings of the time often feature inanimate objects – such as monoliths, trees, stones and bones – juxtaposed with landscapes. Event On The Downs (1934) and Equivalents For The Megaliths (1935) embody this era.
The Tate Britain exhibition explores Nash’s photography as well, with works such as Only Egg, featuring natural objects in assemblages, as well as paintings from the late 1930s, when the artist increasingly explored the boundary between dream and reality through works such as Landscape From A Dream. Towards the end of his life, Nash found inspiration in the county of Oxfordshire, giving rise to a series of visionary landscapes inspired by seasons, the equinox and moon phases, such as Landscapes Of The Vernal Equinox.
As well as presenting an overview of Nash’s work, the Tate exhibition examines the artist’s central role in the developments of British Modernism, his dialogues with international artists, and his role as a leading figure of British surrealism.
It also highlights the artist’s contribution to major exhibitions, such as the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, and the Unit One exhibition, showcasing the work of a group of British modernist artists of which Nash was a founding member.
Paul Nash runs from Oct 26 to March 5, 2017, at the Tate Britain gallery, London. For more information, go to tate.org.uk.