Paul Nash and Carol Ann Duffy Comparative Analysis

Global Concern:
Politics Power and Justice

Narrowed Focus:
Representation of Conflict/State Violence

Introduction
I will be focusing on the global issue of Politics, Power and Justice. With a more narrowed focus on the representation of conflict. The two artists I will be analyzing are Paul Nash and Carol Ann Duffy. Paul Nash is a landscape painter who primarily explored the devastating realities of WW1’s battlefield, bringing to light the incomprehensible harshness of the war. These paintings served to condemn nationalistic backed romantic view of war, instead clarifying the brutal conditions and loss of life. Carol Ann Duffy on the other hand is a poet who focuses on reinstating the marginalised voices of humanity, bringing to attention these voices which otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Duffy uses humour and primarily colloquial language to allow for her poems to be accessible to many. In the poem I am going to explore she brings violence to the forefront of its message. Both of these extracts primarily focus on condemning the act of state violence. While Nash focuses on the destructive nature to both humanity and nature, Duffy explores the violence experienced on a personal level.

We are making a new world (1918)

Introduction of Extract
My first extract is We Are Making A New World by Paul Nash. This oil painting is an abstract representation of the conditions of a battlefield after a conflict in WW1, but still maintains a sense of realism, through which Nash seems to suggest that the reality of the battlefield is almost impossible to comprehend. The painting is purely of the beaten landscape, devoid of soldiers or people; despite this, his painting explores the staggering scale and impacts of state-violence/war

Analysis of Nash
In the foreground of the painting, the earth looks dismembered, bumpy and eroded in an artificial way, this is evident with the uneven and irregularly wiggly lines, the smooth forest floor replaced with one with gnashes; juxtaposed with the bare charred trees, it forms an impression of decay. This is further affirmed by Nash’s choice in colour, notably the muted and dull colour palette of muddy green and black lacks the luster of a thriving forest. The artificial new world is a product of the mechanised state war, use of machine guns, shelling and the such has effectively destroyed the landscape, a product of humanities 

To Nash the war was a turning point, a new cynical focus on the world around him. But despite this the painting still contained a positive motiff, the sun. Slightly off-center and near the top, there appears to be a sun, a cool shade of white offering no warmth to the painting, but appears clearly rays of light still shine down on this barren land. It offers a symbol of hope, a lingering dream that will always be present, yet simultaneously its pale coldness reminds of the dire reality of what this battlefield and the soldiers have to go through.

After the turbulent experience of World War 1, Nash no longer painted romanticised landscapes, but rather focused on raising awareness of the harsh reality of a battlefield. Nash condemnation of war was represented through the irony of the title “We are making a new world”, while maintaining an optimistic tone of new worlds and riches, the juxtaposition with a barren and thrashed landscape realises the irony of it all. WW1 was the turning point which led to modernity and modernism in art, as soldiers returned riddled with cynicism many began to question aspects of social society. While the government initially commissioned Nash to paint and use them as part of the advertising campaign, instead he brought to light gruesome realities. 

Analysis on Shooting Stars Poem:
In the poem Shooting Stars, by Carol Ann Duffy, it explores themes of remembrance and it’s importance to prevent war-attrocities like the genocide of jewish population in World War 2. Duffy’s poem focuses on renewing the voices of the millions who were lost, reinstating their validity and suffering.

• “shooting stars” has positive connotations, yet it actually strongly contrasts the reality/focus of the poem. Stars are something which we place our hope and wish into, but the focus on the brutality takes a more literal meaning, reiterating the cruel genocide of the jewish populations throughout Germany and Europe
• Violent imagery of rape and discrimination.

Conclusion
To conclude, this issue of conflict and violence is something that has followed humans throughout history. In the aftermath of WW1, a war which brought attention to the scarring devastation to many on a scale never seen before, a new found cynicism and condemnation towards war was formed. It is during this phase of modernity that people and creators like Nash shifted to modernism. Art at that point in history had primarily been used as a form of propaganda, romantic images of a soldier going to battle and distinguishing oneself as a hero. In order for him to deny and condemn such messages he had to use a new artform, to push boundaries towards the truest expression of the horrors of state violence. While Duffy bases her poem on a different conflict, it is analogous in its representation of conflict and bringing light to the devastating effects of such wars.