PAUL NASH
•
The British painter, printmaker, illustrator, and photographer who achieved recognition for the war landscape he painted during both world wars.
•
In 1914, enlisted in the Artist’s Rifles to serves in the World War I.
•
Appointed an official war artist by the British government in 1917 • •
1918- 2003 Most theme depict social realism
•
Showed great creativity and abundance but also a historic period documented.
•
Won several awards of art, sent to many countries around according to diplomatic corps at Cuba, China, Mongolia, and Soviet Union
NGUYEN KAO THUONG
THE MENIN ROAD 1919, OIL PAINTING,
THE CONTEXT OF “THE MENIN ROAD”
182.8 cm x 317.5 cm
The painting showed how Nick moved from Cubo- Futurism towards descriptive naturalism, witness to the extreme of the violence of the destruction in the wet lands (the injured woodlands) and around the town itself destroyed. The artwork was the scene of frequent artillery fire directed by German forces against the predominant British presence in the Sailent most notably during the First and Third Battles of Ypres (1914 and 1917). Nick has received the commission for this work, as it originally called “A Flander Battlefield” from April 1918; featuring in Hall of Remembrance devoted to ”fighting subjects, home subjects and the war at the sea and in the air”. There are some of the most avant-garde British artists of the time, the British War memorials Committee advisors saw pattern as firmly with European traditional art commission, looking to models from Renaissance. The art and the setting celebrate the national ideas of heroism and sacrifice. But Hall of Remembrance never be built and the work was given to the Imperial War Museum. Paul worked on the painting from June 1918 to February 1919.
The author created a scene of devastated battlefield, flood trenches and shattered trees by outrageous beams of light from an ominous sky. Passing through the shell-holes and tree stumps, the little two figures being emphasized clearly toward the audience. No road at all visible- included the key road east out of Ypres, its one of the hottest spot of Western Front, and certainly in Ypres Sailent.
“The Menin Road” FOREGROUND: - Filled with concrete blocks, barbed wire and corrugated iron ⇒ Blocking access the road - Columns of mud rise up in the background -
-
2 soldiers follow the line of a road that has been damaged, beyond recognition Trapped by the landscape Composing picture in 3 broad strips
IRONIC TITLE.
Tree is the traditional symbol of strength and regeneration, Paul Nash transformed into black and burned stumps of destruction.
“The author created a scene of devastated battlefield, flood trenches and shattered trees by outrageous beams of light from an apocalyptic sky. Passing through the shell-holes and tree stumps, the little two figures being emphasized clearly”
Traditional elements of Romantic landscape painting, Paul Nash portrayed rays of light breaking through the clouds. He transformed the iconographic elements in a way to threat last soldiers disseminated in rough landscape.
Not only show sun’s ray but also the significant light of bombs Toward sky full of clouds of smoke bisected slides of sunlight resembling gun barrels
CLOUDS AT THE END RAY INTERPRETATION: - Explosion of bombs - Destructive rays, poisonous clouds
BLOCK OF CONCRETE Fragmented, not consistency
THE CONTEXT OF
“Troops on operation crossing Dong Thap guerrilla base”
Troops on operation crossing Dong Thap guerrilla base 1997, Oil on canvas , 100 x 152 cm
The artwork was composed during his last years in 1997 and was exhibited in VietNam Fine Art Museum. Nguyen Kao Thuong produced the image quickly due to the dangerous environment- but it was very interesting and important historical document of the lives of soldiers and civilians at the forefront of the war. In Thuong’s youth, he was influenced by impressionism and cubism. However participating in war for 2 years, gradually he had access to methods for creating realistic socialist characteristics. The artist himself, took part in the battle, and took advantage of this time to sketch with pencils on typing paper first and then further developed. Its featuring a glorious battle in Dong Thap in the year of 1972, which our Vietnamese resistance forces seized the French’s army in Eastern Offensive. It portrayed how the Vietnamese artwork has developed and augmented through the recent periods of colonialism , war, independence and globalization. This proves the colonial period and the development of Vietnamese art under French influence, effect on the lives and works of artists, subsequent development of modern and abstract commercial Vietnamese art. Being one of the artists during American War, Thuong’s artwork was produced by wars from front line.
Thuong used oil painting to build large layout paintings, deliberately obvious with multiple layers of sight. In light and strong, he reflects the revolutionary war themes in both South and North; the political movements of people of South and the leaders. Nguyen Kao Thuong sketched a group of solders by using a composition technique typical of the Italian Renaissance: composition is formed in a spiral shape to draw audience’s eyes to the image , replicating natural form such as boxes, human figure, and houses. ANOTHER VALUE: THERAPEUTIC EFFECT ON
SOLDIERS
FOREGROUND: - Filled with boxes, mud, columns, rooftops, strings, stairs
“In the dehumanizing environment of war, soldiers greatly valued this care and attention and would treasure the image produced because it actually kept all the memories during the war how they scarifying their lives. Besides, highly valued within the military”.
HIDEOUS SKY WITH CLOUDS
- Columns of mud emphasized in the light background - Soldiers are doing their mission, running in different directions from different corners - Hold the guns
Depict the consequences of war, every corner is the broken piece, maybe half of them are blown up to the sky
- Houses are all damaged - Depicted the real life conditions during war period of time - No citizens are drawn to the scale
THE CONTEXT OF “Paths of Glory”
“Paths of Glory” was part of series of 75 paintings, drawings, and prints that Nevinson completed after his return from France and Belgium where he had been sent by the British government as an official war artist on July 5, 1917. It was held by the Imperial War Museum in London. The painting depicted two dead British soldiers face down in a battle field on the Western Front. Considered one of the most successful pieces of Nevinson, however, for some commentators the painting is straightforward lament for the British dead of First World War that captures the war- weariness pervading Britain at the time. The War Office promptly banned it, reasoning that “representations of the dead have an ill affect at home”, undermine the public morale at a time during the war when morale was already at an all time low. Numerous artists exhibited dead soldiers both Allied and enemy soldiers is inconsistent with that reasoning. Although, Christopher still included this confrontation painting in the show with a brown paper cross the canvas inscribed “Censored”
Christopher Richard W. Nevinson A British figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer, who was one of the most famous war artists of World War I. Paths of Glory, 1917, Oil Painting, 46cm x 61 cm
The painting depicted two dead British soldiers face down in a battlefield on the Western Front, soldiers to death in wastelands of “Paths of Glory”. The image, not even the grave appears a possibility: the two dead British soldiers lying among the remnant of a recent offensive have been forgotten and their bodies are swollen as they slowly begin to decompose. Laid unburied in a muddy landscape Bare save for barriers of barbed wire and the rubbish of war.
Alarm to the War Office Major A N Lee
“Representations of the dead have an ill affect at home”
HE RECOUNTED:
“When permission was finally refused, I pasted brown paper over it rather than leave a hole on the wall, and wrote ‘censored’ across it”. This can be called as “record-breaking attendance”.
MOOD OF DEATH:
FOREGROUND - Barbed wire and skeletal web of posts - The rubbish and leftover land - Two soldiers lying deadly on the ground - Gun and hat
Soldiers are painted face down , as if anonymous
Heightened through the use of peculiar, unnatural light. The repressive line is implying an untold number of dead beyond the limits of the canvas. The small tone against background of sky is split by a skeletal web of posts and barbed wire.
HOW HAVE SOLDIERS BEEN PORTRAYED: Have been left unattended, presumably behind the Allied lines Their bloated and decomposing bodies appear to float at the side of the road Have they been forgotten? Are there too many others and too few resources to deal with them? Does no one care anymore about burying them? No clues to the actual batter, does this even matter?
“A Taube” inspiration–
THE MOOD- ATMOSPHERE
consequences of WORLD WAR I
WAR AFFECTED THE LIVES OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS The artist depicted the shocking violence of the sceneshows the increasing vulnerability of the civilian population during the beginning of the First World War Painted in Nevelson's first phrase of unofficial employment and recalls the disturbing scene he witnessed in France.
NEVINSON: A Taube, 1915, Oil Painting, 76cm x 64 cm
FOREGROUND
The body of small French school boys lies on pavement outside the house
“There’s a small boy lay before me, a symbol of all that was to come”
THE CAUSE :
Surrounded by broken cobblestones from a hole blown in street during an air raid
- A German for a pigeon or dove Used during early part of the war for investigation and observation
GERMAN TAUBE AIRCRAFT
WAR IN ALL 3 ARTWORKS THE EASTER OFFENSIVE OF 1972
Artist participated in the wars, experienced real situations and depicted real scenes that they applied to their artworks. Same context (in the same period of war time even from different cultures) They depicted the importance of soldiers and the glorious responsibility, duty and mission that they have done to the country, to the citizens. The medium used are all oil painting on canvas They all depicted the horror side of life during war. The paintings include details such as barbed wire painting techniques, the lands (wet and wasted). Different period of war even with different cultures Audiences experience similar mood and tone such as evoking sympathy and morose, pressure and tension
WESTERN FRONT/ FIRST WORLD WAR 1914-1918
Image: BATTLE OF THE MENIN ROAD RIDGE
Third British general attack of the Third Battle of Ypres in the First World War.
SIMILATIRIES IN ALL THREE
ALL THREE:
Depict the reality of soldiers, people’s life in war Moody brown dirty colors Diagonal lines with different styles -> emphasize the disorder
MOOD: Pressure, tension, stressful, scarification, rush, chaotic, depress Oil painting on canvas Columns, mud, destruction A far-sided captured: - Include landscape with soldiers - Normal scene during wars Smoke in sky depicted the hollowness Portrayed soldiers’ duty, they are on their mission Detail of barbed wires
Same balance and space: - Half below detailed with elements but above is empty sky with smoggy cloud Sky with diagonal lines crossing over the background
Both 2 soldiers Closedview and far-view captured
CENSORSHIP BY GOVERNMENT Difficulties to exhibited the art pieces However, for some commentators, the painting is a straightforward lament for the British dead of First World War that captures the war- weariness pervading Britain at the time. The artwork caused alarm to the War Office censor, Major A N Lee. He promptly banned it, reasoning that “representations of the dead have an ill affect at home”.
“When the North Vietnamese army and National Liberation Front forces captured Saigon in April 1975 and reunified the north and south under a communist government, many artists fled to the country and abandoned their work to escape persecution, that’s why the collection was rare and valuable.” The Northerners they appreciated the importance of artists but were careful to rigidly focus and regulate the works. Artists were sent to ports, railway lines and factories to document the reconstruction of country.
Significant mission of artists
Numerous artists exhibited dead soldiers both Allied and enemy soldiers is inconsistent with that reasoning. Explanation by government at that time was the image of dead British soldiers would undermine the public morale at a time during the war when morale was already at an all time low.
EACH PIECE CONTRAST scene
depict what people usually has to overcome to have their life saved Feeing hard to breath
All soldiers who run in different directions holding their gun and be ready to fight for the battle
CORRUPTION THEME: reflect
DEEP THINKING AND FEELING
the history of American War
- Sacrificed for country - Now, abandoned without cares and leave unburied - Hand still holding gun, died unknown
FORM of
house cover on top Uncompleted - broken pieces Light colors with tone and shadow
Complexity
and repetition of forms
Lying in the barbed wire wasteland for a long time is
Road hardly be seen. Inserted between detailed land
Cubism cover on top each other
PITIFUL, EMPATHY TONES/SHADOWS theme color: brown, black, white, blue
2 soldiers trying to pass through the road which they have to bear alone by themselves
FRAGMENT OF DIRTY LAND:
- Short brush stroke movement
STRONG TEXTURE Colors harshly blend together
OBSTACLES PASSED rocks, bombings, gun battles, etc.
With blocks, rivers, mud
DEPICTED TWO important people whose boss arranged the important jobs
LINES
emphasize Horizontally and vertically Thick and thin
OWN ARTWORK CONNECTIONS
THEMES, IDEAS, MESSAGE My intention was to illustrate the hideous destruction that American War created on human life. In Viet Nammy country. People always ended up in isolation with family lost, everything was destroyed. I located a woman sitting in a position as a focus point surrounded by the gloomy and suffocated atmosphere to convey the mood of anguish, lonely, and sorrow. Sewing combine with mostly dark shades of pastel, I captured the most ironic scenes to the eyes of the audiences: trees and houses are damaged badly by bombing; people migrating away; Vietnam soldiers fight. I wanted to depict not only physically but also emotionally destruction world lived in each individual during the misery life time.
SOLDIERS ON DIFFERENT DIRECTION DOING THEIR MISSION
INJURED, HARM PEOPLE’S LIVES. THE BODY LIED UPSIDE DOWN INSPIRED TO OWN PIECE AS THE BODY WAS TIED UP TO THE TREE
BARBED WIRE, DIRTY LAND MOODY BROWN COLORS WITH TONE AND SHADOW
DIAGONAL LINES IN THE SKY, ALL OVER THE ARTWORK
CONSEQUENCES ON HUMAN:
MOODY, MOGGY SKY - (diagonal lines)
The sorrow of people experience in war life condition. Emphasizing theme and message, I portrayed the focus point as woman sitting waiting for husband and the young man who badly damaged by bombing
Inspired by the effective of diagonal lines to convey the atmosphere and texture, by sewing to the sky and blend with grey mist color,, I depicted the hideous atmosphere of artwork
DEPICT SOLDIER’S LIFE AND MISSION. ALSO ELEMENT OF BARBED WIRE
Scenes of life, how soldiers doing their mission, ready to hold the gun to fight with the enemy. Also destruction being portrayed by mostly barbed wire