Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting  little display at the Victoria and Albert Museum of Paul Nash’s illustration work for books. Nash’s earliest ambition was to be an illustrator and he continued to do commercial work as a source of income. There were some nice examples and I particularly liked the work for Richard Aldington’s book of First World War poetry “Images of War” which combined realism and Vorticistism as I love Nash’s war work. I also discovered a book I’d not come across called “Memoirs of Other Fronts” by John Rodker about his experiences as a conscientious objector which I am off to look up. Closes 13 August 2023    

Delightful exhibition at Tate Britain looking at the life and work of Paul Nash. I was already a big Nash fan and this show confirmed this for me. It also became a fascinating study in the effect of war on a person and their recovery. It was so clever that there was one room of his early work, placing him as an Edwardian artist with Blake overtones. You then passed into the next room of his war art and your world, like his, explodes. I hadn’t realised that while he was convalescing from a wound at home a large number of his regiment were killed in action. In his war work we see horror and guilt. As we progress to the post war work we see a mind trying to recover. He reverts to his older subject of landscape but he can’t help but see the war in these familiar worlds, gravitating to land which is like Flanders or scenes like the front at Dymchurch with great diagonals like trenches cutting across it. He also starts to abstract landscape as if having seen it damaged he can n...

Nice exhibition of Paul Nash landscapes at Dulwich Picture Gallery . I had forgotten how abstract Paul Nash’s work is but I liked it and your eye quickly got use to the oddities. I loved a photo of a ploughed field next to a painting of a similar field called ‘Earth Sea’. I went on Bank Holiday Monday and it was great to see the gallery so busy! Reviews Guardian Daily Telegraph Independent Evening Standard