Paul Nash

by David Boyd Haycock

As a painter, illustrator and critic, Paul Nash (1889-1946) was at the forefront of British art in the first half of the twentieth century. Inspired by Willam Blake, Samuel Palmer and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, he produced some of the greatest paintings of the First and Second World Wars. In the intervening years he helped introduce the British avant-garde to the thrilling potential of European modernism, experimenting with abstraction and helping to establish the Surrealist movement in Britain. In this thoughtful and comprehensive survey, David Boyd Haycock explores the full course of Nash's eventful career, his profound love of the English landscape, and the psychological forces that led him to pursue a lifelong vision of flight.

Genres: Art, Biography

80 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Small for an art book, (24cm x 17cm) so the illustrations are quite small too. I found the writing flat and uninteresting, so I skipped nearly all of it. The text itself for me was also physically too small.

I would have preferred a generous art book, or a rounded biography. This book is neither. It is just a brief, formal analysis of his work.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all these short books in the Tate 'British Artists' series, 'Paul Nash' is a concise overview of his life and work, with colour and black and white plates on most pages providing significant examples of the artists development.
Nash dipped his brush in pre-Raphaelite, romantic and surrealist influences, but it was mainly his WWI & WWII depictions that he is remembered for. I have always felt that Paul Nash was born too soon, his visions never really took off. In a sky full of people only some want to fly, isn't that crazy.
Perhaps he would have benefited from the psychedelic sixties to fully explore his vistas.
In a world full of people only some want to fly, isn't that crazy!

[Karina Geddes · Rating 3 out of 5]

i know Paul Nash was a war artist and that was a big of the mutable style of his work but still, not enough landscape explorations to many RAF bombers

[Andrea Engle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief overview of the life and art of Paul Nash, known mainly for his interpretive art-work during both World Wars ... a multitude of illustrations, many in color ...