Going Modern - Being British

(The title of this piece refers to a renowned article by Paul Nash debating two types of British identity - the heritage of the past and progressive present.)


We are making a New World 1918
Paul Nash, Imperial War Museum






Time for an abrupt change of focus; first assignment done and dusted, now on to the next - What impact did the Firtst World War have upon visual culture? A meaty topic, to be approached in my case via a study of the work of Paul Nash, and his idealogical "Englishness", his unpopulated landscapes, and post-war his move to modernism and Surrealism. This painting was completed after the war, from sketches made at the time, and the huge irony of the title is obvious. But the sun keeps rising. Next week we go to the Imperial War Museum - great opportunity to really absorb this and other work of Nash. And taking a long hard look at the Formalism of Clive Bell.

Those unread books

Having spotted several blogs about books which have been bought but lie unread, I thought that I would impose my own challenge on myself. The slight cheat is that I have already started all of these. To make matters worse, I could add many more books to this list.

These are just some and I give myself until February 28th to read:

Nature's Engraver - Jenny Uglow Finished 20 Jan 08









The Snow Geese- William Fiennes Finished Christmas 2007









Death's Other Kingdom - Gamel Woolsey Finished Jan 08










Barbarian in the Garden - Zbigniew Herbert Finished 21 Jan 08









Alice B Toklas - Linda Simon Finished Jan 08








Fathers and Sons - Alexander Waugh









Case Histories - Kate Atkinson Finished Jan 22 08









Human Traces - Sebastian Faulks Finished January 08