Andrew Graham Dixon gave a compelling portrait of Paul Nash
in the first programme of the BBC series British Art at War. Graham Dixon
argued that:
‘Nash was scarred by the war and the ghosts of those
experiences haunted his work throughout his life. A lover of nature, Nash
became one of Britain's most original landscape artists, embracing modern
Surrealism and ancient British history, though always tainted by his
experiences during two world wars. A private yet charismatic man, he brought
British landscape painting into the 20th century with his mixture of the
personal and visionary, the beautiful and the shocking. An artist who saw the
landscape as not just a world to paint, but a way into his heart and mind.’
Nash’s work currently features in Truth and Memory at the
Imperial War Museum; ‘the largest exhibition and first major retrospective of British First World War art for almost 100
years.’ Using artworks drawn mainly from IWM’s national collection and including
work by some of Britain’s most important artists of the twentieth century, this
exhibition assesses ‘the immediate impact and enduring legacy of British art of
the First World War.’
Truth explores ‘how artists encountering the front lines
experimented with new forms of art to capture the totally unfamiliar experience
of the First World War.’ Through the work of CRW Nevinson, Paul Nash and
William Orpen, amongst others, the exhibition considers ‘British artists’ quest
for an authentic or ‘truthful’ representation of modern war.’
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Ivor Gurney - Severn Meadows.
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