the modernist x BDP present - The BDP Talk Series. 4.4 - 1930s Modernism and the British Coastline: Eileen Agar and Paul Nash - The ‘Seaside Surrealists’- Dr Judith Walsh 11/3/26

In this talk, Dr Judith Walsh explores how the British coastline became a catalyst for some of the most imaginative developments in 1930s Modernism. Focusing on the so called “seaside surrealists” — Paul Nash and Eileen Agar — she examines how the beach, the cliff edge and the tidal zone offered these artists, amongst others, a space of experimentation, symbolism, and strangeness.  

Through the paintings, photographs and assemblages of Nash and Agar, the coast emerges not as a picturesque backdrop but as a site of modernity. 

Dr Judith Walsh is a lecturer in art history specialising inModernism and Abstraction. Her doctoral research examined the aesthetic, cultural and social dynamics of the postwar period, with particular attention to the contested relationship between figurative and abstract art. She currently teaches at the University of Liverpool in the School of Architecture and the Continuing Education Department and has delivered extensive programmes for Tate Liverpool, National Museums Liverpool, and Manchester School of Art. She also has an MA in music theory and history and is particularly drawn to contemporary art that engages with music, the collaborative nature of artistic practice and the philosophy of aesthetics.