Paul Nash

by Andrew Causey

Paul Nash (1889-1946) is one of England's most important artists. Though his career was relatively brief, Nash's oeuvre is impressively diverse and draws in paintings, watercolours, prints, set design, book illustration and photography. Focusing on the artist's work as a painter, Andrew Causey skilfully discusses Nash's work from all periods to present the artist's continuity of ideas and ambitions. Paul Nash does not fit easily into any pattern of 20th-century British art. The many themes which run through his work - personal and national identity; the horrors of war - and the many movements and ideas with which he was engaged - Cubism; abstraction; Surrealism; Neo-Romanticism; animism and totemism - makes the task of unravelling the trajectory of his career challenging. By taking a chronological, thematic approach, Andrew Causey analyses the many influences and directions Nash explored in his remarkable career to reveal an artist who combined elements of Modernism and tradition to cr