Mineral Objects

Paul Nash, 1889–1946

1935

Oil on canvas

Yale Center for British Art

Two abstract, cylindrical and disc-shaped stone objects are arranged on a sandy, undulating surface under a pale sky. The objects are rendered in shades of grey with dark openings. 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