Biography
Paul Nash (11 May 1889 – 11 July 1946) was a British surrealist painter and war artist, as well as a photographer, writer and designer of applied art. Nash was among the most important landscape artists of the first half of the twentieth century. He played a key role in the development of Modernism in English art.
Born in London, Nash grew up in Buckinghamshire where he developed a love of the landscape. He entered the Slade School of Art but was poor at figure drawing and concentrated on landscape painting. Nash found much inspiration in landscapes with elements of ancient history, such as burial mounds, Iron Age hill forts such as Wittenham Clumps and the standing stones at Avebury in Wiltshire. The artworks he produced during World War I are among the most iconic images of the conflict. After the war Nash continued to focus on landscape painting, originally in a formalized, decorative style but, throughout the 1930s, in an increasingly abstract and surreal manner. In his paintings he often placed everyday objects into a landscape to give them a new identity and symbolism.
During World War II, although sick with the asthmatic condition that would kill him, he produced two series of anthropomorphic depictions of aircraft, before producing a number of landscapes rich in symbolism with an intense mystical quality. These have perhaps become among the best known works from the period. Nash was also a fine book illustrator, and also designed stage scenery, fabrics and posters.
He was the older brother of the artist John Nash.
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Read full Wikipedia entryArtworks
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Paul Nash Landscape from a Dream
1936–8 -
Paul Nash Totes Meer (Dead Sea)
1940–1 -
Paul Nash Swanage
c.1936 -
Paul Nash Equivalents for the Megaliths
1935 -
Paul Nash Pillar and Moon
1932–42 -
Paul Nash The Cherry Orchard
1917 -
Paul Nash Landscape at Iden
1929 -
Paul Nash The Messerschmitt in Windsor Great Park
1940
Film and audio
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Dave McKean on Paul Nash 'The trenches completely changed him'
Illustrator, filmmaker and comic book artist Dave McKean tells us how the art of Paul Nash influenced on his own …
Features
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Tate Etc
Otto Dix and Paul Nash: Views from the First World War
Otto Dix and Paul Nash: Views from the First World War -
Tate Etc
From the Surreal to the Decorative
He is best known for his paintings from both world wars, as well as his surreal English landscapes, but Paul … -
Art Term
War artists
War artists are artists who are commissioned through an official scheme to record the events of war -
Art Term
Unit One
British group formed by Paul Nash in 1933 to promote modern art, architecture and design -
Tate Etc
Paul Nash's Equivalents for the Megaliths 1935: Tate Britain Rehang
Tate Etc. invited a selection of contemporary artists featured in the new rehang of British art at Tate Britain to … -
Tate Papers
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Tate Etc
Colour me British: Watercolour I
Tate Britain is staging a grand survey of watercolour painting in Great Britain, from the early thirteenth century through to … -
Tate Papers
Sketches, letters, etc.
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Paul Nash Black and white negative, Katharine Munro, Banbury Road, in the garden
date not known -
Paul Nash, recipient: Eileen Agar Drawing of birds with pencil note at the bottom reading ‘a goose bone to the seagulls (old saying)’
[1935–46] -
Paul Nash, recipient: Margaret Nash Letter from Paul Nash to Margaret Odeh
3 July 1913 -
Paul Nash, recipient: Eileen Agar ‘Aerial Flowers’, by Paul Nash
1947
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