Paul Nash - Designer and Illustrator

Paul Nash: Designer and Illustrator / ISBN 9781848224452 / 256-page hardcover, 6.75 x 9.5 inches, 120 color and 40 b&w illustrations / recently published by Lund Humphries (UK)

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Exploring the ways in which painting, applied design, and illustration intertwined over the course of the accomplished career of Paul Nash (1889-1946), this book provides a new perspective on one of the most gifted and celebrated English artists of the twentieth century. Skilfully navigating the diversity of Nash’s design output, which drew in illustration, book jackets, posters, set design, pattern papers, fabrics, glass, ceramics, and photography, in the context of Nash’s painting and wider pre-occupations, James King presents an artist who strove to resolve his artistic vision. With Nash's work informed by seismic shifts within the visual arts during his lifetime—from the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement on the one hand, to Surrealism and Abstraction on the other—this fascinating book reveals the considerable gifts that allowed Nash to create a wholly original vision in turn.

‘Paul Nash has never been out of view as a painter, but his work in design and illustration has never received its due. Now James King has brought together textiles, ceramics, book illustration and advertising, making a rich contribution to charting the interwar decades in Britain and their belief that design would make the world a better place.’ – Alan Powers, author of Eric Ravilious, Artist and Designer

'This unusually beautiful octavo book shows that the design work of English surrealist, landscape painter and official war artist Paul Nash (1889-1946), although spasmodic and commissioned in many media, was a central part of his production.' – The Art Newspaper