Dulwich Picture Gallery is mounting an exhibition devoted to Paul Nash (1889-1946), one of Britain's most highly acclaimed artists. The display, curated by David Fraser Jenkins, explores Nash's entire career showcasing his best known landscapes, still lifes, abstracts and interiors, a selection of Nash's own photographs together with his photographic collages.
Paul Nash – About the Artist
Nash was obsessed with his own mortality. In a letter to James Thurber (American cartoonist and satirist) Nash said he had 'an intense hatred of death', a statement that was confirmed in much of his work.
Nash studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and enjoyed his first solo showing of watercolours and drawings at the Carfax Gallery in 1912. He was linked to various groups, including the Friday Club, an organisation founded by Vanessa Bell. This led to Nash's association with the Omega Workshops, and his work with Roger Fry on the restoration of the Mantegna Cartoons at Hampton Court in 1914. (Courtauld Gallery Exhibition – Beyond Bloomsbury discusses the Omega Workshops in greater detail.)
During the 1930s Nash was associated with the Surrealists and was a founder member of the Unit One group, a group of British artists which included Henry Moore, Herbert Read, Barbara Hepworth, and her husband, Ben Nicholson.
In addition, and most importantly, Nash worked as an official war artist during both world wars, and many of his finest, most intense, paintings reflect his experiences during these two episodes.
Paul Nash – The Elements – Highlights of the Exhibition
The exhibition includes a selection of early drawings, a group of his political paintings from the 1930s, as well as his war paintings. Highlights of the show include Design for Urne Buriall, Mansions of the Dead, Pillar and Moon, Event on the Downs and Totes Meer.
Design for Urne Buriall
Design for Urne Buriall (black collotype and watercolour, 1931) is part of a series of drawings commissioned to illustrate a 1932 edition of Thomas Browne’s 17th-century essay (1658) “Urne Buriall”. The essay is a description of burial urns discovered at Walsingham in Norfolk.
Mansions of the Dead
Mansions of the Dead - Ghosts, (pencil and watercolour, 1932), was also created to illustrate Browne’s essay. Nash’s surrealist drawing, a loose interpretation of the text, depicts an aerial landscape in which a set of precisely drawn compartments are ready to receive the burial urns. Loosely drawn birds and insects hover in the drawing.
Pillar and Moon
Pillar and Moon (oil on canvas, 1932-42) reflects Nash's experiences in the two world wars. He shows a ruined pillar on which is placed a stone sphere. In the distance, diagonally opposite the sphere, the moon shines.
Although these two objects may seem unrelated it is known that Nash was interested in Chinese art and philosophy, so perhaps these two articles represent yin and yang. The eerie atmosphere creates a poignant impression of death and mourning.
Event on the Downs
Event on the Downs (oil on canvas, 1934) shows the view across Ballard Down from Whitecliff Farm, near Swanage in Dorset. Nash and his wife lived there in 1934/5. Depicted in the painting are three items, the tree stump, the cloud and the tennis ball, motifs which frequently referred in Nash’s art from this period. The cloud and the tree stump resemble each other in shape, again referring to the yin-yang symbol.
Totes Meer
Totes Meer (oil on canvas, 1940) shows a scene of total devastation in which a moonlit landscape is littered with the wreckage of German aircraft. Nash based the work on a series of photographs taken at a dump for enemy aeroplanes.
In 1941, in a letter to Kenneth Clark (Chairman of the War Artists' Advisory Committee, later Lord Clark) Nash described the scene as, “metal piled up, wreckage. It is hundreds and hundreds of flying creatures which invaded these shores.” The only living thing is a white bird low on the horizon.
Exhibition Catalogue: Paul Nash – The Elements
To accompany the exhibition, a 160-page catalogue has been released by Scala Publishers Ltd. The publication features essays by the curator, David Fraser Jenkins, together with contributions by David Boyd Haycock and Simon Grant.
Paul Nash – The Elements will be on view until 9th May 2010 and further information can be obtained from Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Sources:
- Dulwich Art Gallery
- Tate Collection Online
Frances Spiegel - Frances Spiegel, B.A. Hons. (Open)., Dip.Eur.Hum., read Art History/European Modern History at the Open University.
Join the Conversation