Description
Paul Nash, one of the most prominent painters of British surrealism, offers us in his work "Circle of the monoliths" (1938) a vision that transcends the merely landscape to enter the metaphysical. In this piece, we face a scene that, although devoid of human figures, evokes an almost spiritual presence thanks to the disposition and character of the elements represented.
At first glance, the work introduces us to a landscape dominated by monoliths arranged in a circular, reminiscent of the ancestral stone circles that populate the United Kingdom, such as the famous Stonehenge. Each of these stone masses rises with an almost overwhelming solidity, standing against a sky that combines gray and bluish tones, suggesting an imminent twilight or a bud storm. Nash plays with the light masterfully, obscuring and delineating the contours of the monoliths in such a way that they seem to acquire their own life, a kind of eternal guardians of a forgotten past.
The use of color is essential in "Circle of the monoliths". Nash's palette is dominated by earthly tones in the monoliths, although they are not shown. On the contrary, each stone seems to radiate a contained energy, a dynamism that is counteracted by the melancholic calm of heaven. The colors overlap and mix in a subtle way, which confers an almost tactile texture to the painted surface. This effect is enhanced by the absence of human elements, which invites the viewer to project their own emotions and meanings on the scene.
Nash's composition is remarkably bold. The symmetry of the circle is subtly broken by the disposition of the monoliths, some of which are slightly diverted or inclined. This irregularity introduces a sense of movement and tension, in contrast to the apparent stillness of the environment. When using a low and centered perspective, Nash makes us silent participants of a kind of cosmic ritual, where the stones become main actors of a telluric drama.
You cannot ignore the influence that the environment and history of Great Britain had on Nash. During this period, the painter was deeply interested in the vestiges of the past and the mysteries of the English rural landscape. There are numerous critics who point out how their experiences in World War I, where he witnessed the destruction and desolation, influenced their most metaphysical and melancholic visions of the landscape. In "Circle of the monoliths", the atmosphere is both ominous and comforting, a duality that reflects the psychological state of the artist himself.
Within its corpus of works, this painting is intimately related to other pieces such as "equivalent for the megaliths" and "Landscape from a Dream", where the manipulation of space and natural elements leads to the viewer to a world where the visible and invisible They intertwine. Nash not only dedicated himself to representing the British landscape as a mere topographic reproduction, but reinterpreted it through the prism of his own anxieties and reveries, imbueting it with a deeper and more lasting meaning.
In short, "Circle of the monoliths" by Paul Nash is a work that challenges us from its apparent formal simplicity. When observing it, we have not only to admire its technical mastery, but to allow ourselves to be carried by the mystical atmosphere it evokes, reminding us that sometimes the true landscape secrets do not reside in what we see, but in what we feel and project on it .
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