Simon Martin - British Landscapes

British Landscapes: A Sense of Place, published to accompany the exhibition of the same name at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, explores how artists responded to the landscape of Britain during the 20th century.Drawing on works from the Modern British art collection of Pallant House Gallery, alongside exceptional works on long-term loan from private collections, it features artists including Barbara Hepworth, Clare Leighton, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson, Eric Ravilious and Keith Vaughan.Covering a wide range of genres, including British post-impressionism, the printmaking revival, travel posters, surrealism and wartime landscapes, the book also considers the St Ives artists and their contemporaries.Simon Martin examines the concept of placemaking, and how artists have conveyed the spirit or sense of a particular place in their artworks, including not only pastoral idylls but also urban, suburban and industrial landscapes.

He looks at the relationship of people to the land from images of rural labour and farming to the development of leisure tourism and how the British landscape has been central to the formation of regional and national identities.Martin is an art historian and curator, and the Director of Pallant House Gallery.

He has curated many exhibitions and written widely on Modern British and contemporary art.