Rare magic

Paul Nash: The Elements
Dulwich Picture Gallery, until 9 May

Paul Nash (1889–1946) is one of those rare artists whose work manages to be British, Modernist and popular at the same time without imploding. It is thus curious that there are not more exhibitions of his beautiful and poignant work. The last general Nash survey in London was at the Tate in 1975. More recently, the Imperial War Museum has shown his war work, and in 2003 there was a good and wide-ranging show at Tate Liverpool. With that exhibition the Tate no doubt felt it had done its duty to Nash, so the current, long-overdue London display was left to other hands. All praise, then, to Dulwich Picture Gallery for rising to the challenge. But a show of Paul Nash there presents certain problems. On the day I visited, the galleries were packed and there was a queue for admission. This is good for Dulwich but not so good for Nash. Its temporary exhibition space was not built for large crowds, and the work was too often invisible behind the massed backs of visitors, while the small rooms reverberated with unconsidered opinions.

‘A certain English timidity’ was one view I heard trumpeted by the female of the species, aptly demonstrating the danger of attending an exhibition burdened by preconceptions. I was sorry that an apparently intelligent visitor was unable to experience and savour the rare magic that Paul Nash offers to those who haven’t closed their minds. Mine must have been tuned to the right wavelength, for as I walked down from the station to the gallery I encountered a violently cropped tree, shelved around with fungi and hung with a single tendril of creeper.