Painted at the end of the Second World War, Forecast resembles the tangled memory of an anxious dream. John Tunnard was a conscientious objector during the war but compromised by serving as a coast guard in Cornwall, a modernist haven in Britain’s southwestern corner. Forecast suggests the forms of the Cornish coast, barometrical instruments for predicting the weather, and an ominous sky. Like other British surrealists, Tunnard sought to balance modernism with a traditional sense of British identity. In Forecast he captures a sense of place as well as the anxiety of its near loss to war and invasion. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
