Paul Nash (1889–1946) was a British painter, printmaker, photographer and designer whose work moved between landscape, war art and Surrealism. Throughout his career he transformed places, objects and natural forms into images charged with memory, symbolism and a strong sense of the uncanny.
Born in London and brought up in Buckinghamshire, Nash studied briefly at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1910–11. During the First World War he served on the Western Front and was later appointed an Official War Artist. His paintings and drawings of the devastated landscape of Flanders, including We are Making a New World, established his reputation and remain among the defining images of the conflict.
During the inter-war years Nash became increasingly interested in the symbolic possibilities of landscape and in the relationship between natural and man-made forms. He worked extensively in watercolour, painting, photography and book illustration, and became an important figure in the development of British modernism. In 1933 he founded Unit One, bringing together artists and architects including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Edward Burra.
Nash had a substantial association with The Redfern Gallery during the 1930s and 1940s. His work appeared in group exhibitions at the gallery, including Watercolours and Drawings by Paul Nash, Frank Dobson, P.H. Jowett, Adrian Allinson and Isabel Nicholas in 1934. The following year the Redfern presented a major one-man exhibition of sixty-one watercolours and drawings, many inspired by Dorset and Purbeck, which received strong critical attention. The gallery continued to exhibit Nash’s work during the war years.
Nash also had an important relationship with the artist Eileen Agar, later herself closely associated with The Redfern Gallery. They met in 1935 and became close friends and lovers. Nash introduced Agar to the idea of the found object and encouraged her interest in Surrealism and in objects discovered within the landscape. In 1942, when the Redfern presented an exhibition of recent paintings by Agar and Michael Rothenstein, Nash wrote the catalogue foreword, praising Agar’s imaginative range and her contribution to British Surrealism.
Nash’s own work became increasingly aligned with Surrealism during the 1930s. He served on the organising committee of the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London and developed a body of work in which stones, trees, standing forms and fragments of landscape took on mysterious or dream-like associations.
During the Second World War Nash was again appointed an Official War Artist. His later works, including Totes Meerand the Battle of Germany, transformed the machinery and destruction of modern warfare into powerful, often visionary images.
Nash exhibited widely during his lifetime and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1938. His work is held in major public collections including Tate, the Imperial War Museums and numerous museums in Britain and internationally.
