Lecture

Paul Nash in Dorset | Professor Paul Gough

16 May 2024, 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Dorset exercised a powerful hold on the painter Paul Nash, fuelling his imagination and enriching his paintings, photographs, and writing. He thought of Dorset, and the Island of Purbeck in particular, as an ancient and mythical landscape ‘overcast by a noble melancholy’, a place strewn with memorable motifs and deeply enriched by ‘the burden of its extraordinary inheritance.’

This richly illustrated lecture explores over 80 artworks created from the mid-1930s until his death in 1946. They range from ancient places such as Maiden Castle and Badbury Rings to the limestone promontories and fossilised forests on the Purbeck coast. Swanage, in particular, fascinated Nash. Its blend of architectural quirkiness and surrealist potency released a new dimension in his creativity, leading to new artworks that defined him as a painter of international significance.

A painter, broadcaster and writer, Professor Gough has exhibited internationally and is represented in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum, London, the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, and the National War Memorial, New Zealand. In addition to roles in national and international higher education, his research into the imagery and aftermath of war has been presented at global conferences, symposia and to audiences throughout the world. He has also published extensively about British painting and is currently completing an illustrated biography on Gilbert Spencer RA for Yale University Press. Paul Gough is Vice Chancellor of Arts University Bournemouth.16