Mineral Objects
In 1932, Paul Nash wondered "whether it is possible to ‘go modern’ and still ‘be British.’" He wrote, "the battle lines have been drawn up: internationalism versus an indigenous culture; renovation versus conservatism; the industrial versus the pastoral; the functional versus the futile." Nash attempted to reconcile these binaries by developing a distinctively British form of surrealism in which mock monumental objects are set in the landscapes of southern England as if they were prehistoric megaliths. The objects stand out as gigantic, inexplicable presences and yet are deeply rooted in the landscape. Mineral Objects depicts pieces of bituminous shale (so-called coal money) from Kimmeridge, ...
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1935
Oil on canvas
50.2 x 60.3cm
B1998.21.1
Digital image courtesy Yale Center for British Art; free to use under the Center's Image Terms of Use
Where you'll find this
Permanent collection