paul nash 1889-1946
Probably the greatest British artist of the 20C. It is a scandal that Nash is
not better known in Europe and America.
Paul Nash was an Official War Artist during both the First and Second
World Wars.
He studied at the Slade School and later taught at the Royal College
of Art where he encouraged his students, Ravilious and Bawden
amongst them, to work as illustrators, designers and decorators.
The attempt by Nash to integrate his work into modern life was prompted by
an avant-gardist desire to engage with audiences outside of the normal
gallery context. Furthermore he hoped, like his design patrons Frank Pick and
Harold Curwen, that art, beauty and modern life could be reconciled. Of course,
Nash's own work was characterised by the sadness and melancholy of his
own experience during WW1.
contemporary lithograph 1937
cover for the prospectus of Contemporary Lithographs 1937
shell poster 1932
shell poster 1935
LT posters 1936
WW2 National Gallery print - Battle of Britain
shell county guide
see also our pages on
posters from a private collection
teaset by foley 1933
book design for Bryant and May 1933
Nash was a member of Unit One (1933) and also of the English Surrealist
movement. He wasinterested in photography and was at the forefront of
attempts to integrate photgraphic elements into the visual language of the
fine arts. Nash lived in Judd Street, London, at Dymchurch on Romney Marsh
and in Dorset.
Nash's greatest paintings were often retrospective and symbolic
representations of specific landscapes - the battlefields of WW1,
the sea wall at Dymchurch and Romney Marsh in Kent, the Dorset coast,
the ancient stone circle at Avebury, Wiltshire, and of other ancient
sites in England including Wittemham Clumps.
Nash was an avant-gardist and polemical writer during the 1930s through the
pages of the Architectural Review and Axis.
The images below are of some of Nash's greatest paintings. They are held in
British public collections and we have made a note of the location of each
picture. These are simply our own favourites.
WW1 painting - We Are Making A New World 1918 (IWM)
The Shore (at Dymchurch) 1923 (Leeds)
Winter Sea (Dymchurch) 1925 (York)
Northern Adventure (St Pancras) 1929 (Aberdeen)
Wood on the Downs 1930 (Aberdeen)
Event on the Downs 1934 (Govt Art Col)
Landscape of the Megaliths 1934 (Brit Council)
Totes Meer (Dead Sea) 1940 (Tate)
Battle of Britain 1941 (IWM)
Battle of Germany 1944 (IWM)
Wonderful Tate Liverpool retrospective held in 2003
Seaside Surrealism Paul Nash in Swanage by Pennie Denton
price £13
paul nash in his studio
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