INDOC. Documentation centre about Art and Nature

David Nash: a monograph on the artist’s career

One of the defining features of the work of this British sculptor, born in 1945, is the way he carves large tree trunks to create unusual large-scale figures he calls vessels.

The book tells how at the end of the 1960s David Nash took refuge in a small town in Wales where he bought a disused chapel. The chapel became his studio, the place where his approach to contemporary art would enter into communion with the landscape through a range of projects.

The book shows us a number of these impressive projects, including Wooden Boulder. The work consists of a wooden sphere cut by the artist in 1978 and pushed into a stream. Nash followed the evolution of the sculpture as it was acted on by natural forces, until it finally washed out to sea in 2003.

Another notable project the book presents is Ash Dome (1977), a ring of ash trees the artist carefully trained over the course of years to form a natural dome.

In addition to these striking works, the book presents other more object-based sculpture series created by David Nash for installation in the landscape, as well as sketches and paintings.

The Art and Nature collection-route developed by the CDAN includes a sculpture by Nash entitled Three Sun Vessels for Huesca. The site where the work is located is just a few kilometres from Berdún (Huesca).

Details:

·        David Nash, with an introduction by Norbert Lynton (London: Thames & Hudson, 2007), 168 pages with colour illustrations, text in English.

More information:

·         The book is available from INDOC, the CDAN’s Art and Nature Documentation Centre.

·         Access to information on the intervention by David Nash included in the CDAN's Art and Nature collection-route

·         Access to the monograph on David Nash published in the INDOC digital newsletter
 

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