The Devastation of Nature by War Shown Through "Wire"--Connor Adams
Artist Background
Paul Nash (1889–1946) was a painter for the United Kingdom in the early 20th century. Although he was born in London, his family quickly moved to the English countryside when he was 13 years old (“Paul Nash | British Painter”). He would enter the Slade School of Art and focus on his landscape ability. Most of his most popular works, Spring in the Trenches, Ridgewood, and We Are Making a New World, to name a few, were made around the time period of World War I and, as such, focused on the subject. Although initially enlisting in the war as a private, Nash would later come out of officer training as a second lieutenant before becoming a war artist (“Paul Nash | British Painter”). He would quickly grow tired of the war and was devastated at the total disregard for nature in the conflict. In a letter to his wife, Nash would express his frustrations: “Sunset and sunrise are blasphemous, they are mockeries to man, only the black rain out of the bruised and swollen clouds all through the bitter black night is fit atmosphere in such a land” (Wikipedia Contributors). Wire would be one of many paintings that reflect his bitter attitude toward the relationship between the war and nature’s undoing.
Reason For Painting Selection
Throughout the class, we have discussed collateral damage extensively through the works of Crawford, Cronin, and even more recently in Drone by Gusterson. These all spoke on human casualties that were not the main target in war or an attack. However, we have never looked at or thought about the land after the hell of war. It is almost never the actual target, but perpetually in the way of most attacks. Often times, the land can take decades to look anywhere similar to what it looked like before. Or perhaps it will never look the same, forever lost due to human greed and politics.
Analysis
Wire (1918) depicts the aftermath of a battle (assumingly in World War I), with the effects on the Earth as the central focus. Barbed wire covers every inch of the scene, with soot and gaping holes covering the ground as well. On the right side of the painting, there is a tree that has been cut to the stump and split down the middle of even that. Barbed wire like a crown of thorns covers the top of the tree as well, contributing to an almost religious effect on the watercolor. More destroyed trees can be seen further backward in the painting, almost all having been reduced to mere stumps. On the left, the sky is split between a pale gray and a reddish, black sky full of smoke. The hopelessness in the scene is felt regardless of where you look, as there is no highlight to the damage that has been done. No matter the peace that will be made at this point, it will not change what has happened. The dullness of the colors used throughout the painting contributes to this effect by stripping all surroundings of positivity, allowing Nash to describe an almost resigned depression for the destroyed nature.
Works Cited:
Güner, Fisun. “Haunting Paintings from the Battlefields of War.” Www.bbc.com, 11 Nov. 2016, www.bbc.com/culture/article/20161111-haunting-paintings-from-the-battlefields-of-war.
“Paul Nash | British Painter.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Nash.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Paul Nash (Artist).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Dec. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Nash_(artist).