Paul Nash: We Are Making a New World

Artist Paul Nash survived both world wars and had deeply antiwar views. He enlisted in World War One and was sent to the Western Front. There, he fell into a trench, broke a rib and was marked for home. While recovering in London, though, Nash expanded his front-line sketches and produced a series of drawings about the war. His sketches were well received and he was made an official war artist. He used his seemingly pro-war art to hit hard the horrors of war.

This particular work pictures the sun rising on "No Man's Land." Nash uses a bright background to create a false sense of hope. The sun rose every day during the war and will always rise again the next. However, the war and devastation raged on with no respect for "a new day, anything can happen." The sunrise did not bring relief or hope; it only showed the horrors that were hidden by the darkness and revealed new horrors that occurred overnight.

No Man's Land is also shown as being formed and changed by the war. No Man's Land was most likely nothing like this before. However, the war has taken its toll and is changing the landscape just as much as it changed the world in general. The land mimicked the changing world by showing the upheaval of the old world, the gory of the change and eventually the rebirth of the new. However, the new may not be as good as the old and the scars of war will last forever.

Between the two main elements of his work, Nash reveals his antiwar views and drives home the harsh realities of the war. The sun will always rise no matter what carnage has overtaken the world and the world will always be changed and molded into something else but not without sacrifice, bloodshed and a hard recovery.