Home » Posts tagged 'JMW Turner'

Tag Archives: JMW Turner

Exhibition Review: Turner’s Modern World at Tate Britain from 28 October 2020 – 7 March 2021

October 26, 2020 1:09 pm / Leave a comment

Tate Britain presents a landmark exhibition dedicated to JMW Turner (1775-1851), Turner’s Modern World explores how one of Britain’s greatest landscape painter found new ways to capture the tumultuous events of his day, from technology’s impact to the effects of modernisation on society. The exhibition brings together 160 key works, including major loans as well as paintings and rarely seen drawings from Tate’s Turner Bequest.

Turner lived through dramatic times when Britain was at war and revolutions and independence struggles took place around the world. He also witnessed the way that capitalism and the industrial revolution was transforming the world around him. Whilst many artists saw the changes with disgust and saw the destruction of the pastoral Britain they loved, Turner was fascinated how the industry and infrastructure were changing Britain’s landscape.

The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars inspired Turner’s work with paintings such as The Battle of Trafalgar 1806-8 and Field of Waterloo 1818, but he also depicted aspects of life and work in Britain before, during and after conflict.

The exhibition presents his recollections of wartime at home and his reflections on the reputations of Nelson, Napoleon and Wellington as well as on ordinary soldiers and civilians.

In the Causes and Campaigns room, the exhibition reflects on Turner’s interest in social reform, including liberal and humanitarian causes such as Greek independence from Ottoman Turkey, the 1832 Reform Act and the abolition movement. Key works include The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons 1835, while A Disaster at Sea 1835 and Wreck of a Transport Ship c.1801 illustrates Turner’s interest in maritime history.

The final section of the exhibition brings a focus on Turner’s interest in steam technology and industrialisation, in many ways Turner’s late style was influenced by the modern world. In contrast with many of his contemporaries, Turner’s late work began to be less classical and more impressionistic with the emphasis of dynamic movement and vibrant colour.

Some of his major works are included in this section such as .Snow Storm 1842 as well as The Fighting ‘Téméraire’ 1839 and Rain, Steam and Speed 1844 on rare loan from the National Gallery.

This fascinating exhibition is a reminder of how innovative and in some ways how radical Turner was. Turner was generally well respected by other artists and the public but was often seen as a bit of an outsider. Therefore whilst other artists saw the industrial revolution as to be something to ignore, Turner was fascinated by the changes and tried to capture some visual record of the rapidly changing world. This exhibition provides plenty of evidence of the wide range of the artist’s abilities and illustrates how Turner has become less of an outsider but rather recognised as a pioneer in developing new styles that would be taken up be the impressionists and others.

Visiting London Guide Rating – Recommended

For more information or to book tickets, visit the Tate Britain website here

London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in January 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
To find out more visit the website here

Turner’s Modern World at Tate Britain from 28 October 2020 to 7 March 2021

September 15, 2020 12:45 pm / Leave a comment

Tate Britain will present a landmark exhibition dedicated to JMW Turner (1775-1851), exploring what it meant to be a modern artist during his lifetime. Turner’s Modern World will reveal how one of Britain’s greatest landscape painter found new ways to capture the momentous events of his day, from technology’s impact on the natural world to the dizzying effects of modernisation on society. The exhibition will bring together 160 key works, including major loans as well as paintings and rarely seen drawings from the rich holdings of Tate’s Turner Bequest.

Turner lived through turbulent times. Britain was at war for much of his life, while revolutions and independence struggles took place around the world. He witnessed the explosion of finance capitalism as well as the transition from sail to steam and from manpower to mechanisation. Political reform as well as scientific and cultural advances transformed society and shaped the modern world. Living and working at the peak of the industrial revolution, Turner faced up to these new challenges when many other artists did not. Starting in the 1790s when Turner first observed contemporary life as a young painter, the exhibition will explore his fascination for industry and infrastructure as new elements of Britain’s landscape.

Two decades of conflict with France through the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars introduced another key dynamic to Turner’s work. He directly engaged with war in paintings such as The Battle of Trafalgar 1806-8 and Field of Waterloo 1818, but also depicted aspects of life and work in Britain before, during and after conflict. The exhibition will present his recollections of wartime at home and his reflections on the reputations of Nelson, Napoleon and Wellington as well as on ordinary soldiers and civilians.

The exhibition will also reflect on Turner’s interest in social reform, especially his changing attitudes towards politics, labour and slavery. These include liberal and humanitarian causes such as Greek independence from Ottoman Turkey, the 1832 Reform Act and the abolition movement. Key works such as The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons 1835 show his engagement with political events of the day, while A Disaster at Sea 1835 and Wreck of a Transport Ship c.1801 are ambitious depictions of maritime catastrophes.

The final section of the exhibition will focus on Turner’s pioneering treatment of steam technology, presenting Turner’s late style as a means by which the artist sought to develop a visual language fit for the modern world. Though alarming to his contemporaries, Turner’s late work is now appreciated as an eloquent response to the dizzying pace of change witnessed during his lifetime. The exhibition will explore how Turner followed his early interest in industrial advances through to the 1840s when, alone among his fellow artists, he made steam-boats and railways the subjects of major exhibition pictures. Key works will include Snow Storm 1842 as well as The Fighting ‘Téméraire’ 1839 and Rain, Steam and Speed 1844 on rare loan from the National Gallery.

For more information or to book tickets, visit the Tate Britain website here

British Watercolours: From the Collection of BNY Mellon at the Royal Academy – 25th September to 16th December 2018

September 10, 2018 1:11 pm / Leave a comment

In September 2018, the Royal Academy will present British Watercolours: From the Collection of BNY Mellon in the Tennant Gallery. The free exhibition will present twenty-five British watercolours and drawings from BNY Mellon’s corporate art collections which were created in the first hundred years of the Royal Academy’s existence between 1770-1870. The exhibition marks the Royal Academy’s 250th anniversary this year.

David Cox, Drovers Crossing a River Valley in Wales, 1840. Collection of BNY Mellon; photography by Adam Milliron.

British Watercolours will focus on prominent Royal Academicians such as Thomas Gainsborough, JMW Turner, John Constable and Sir David Wilkie, whose works will return to London from the United States for the duration of the exhibition. Highlights will include an 1833 view of Hampstead Heath by John Constable RA; Italian landscape scenes painted in the 1770s by Thomas Jones and John Robert Cozens; an unfinished Study of a Bedouin Arab, 1840s, by John Frederick Lewis RA; and an expressive depiction of Venice by the critic and artist John Ruskin from 1876.

Cornelius Varley,Nottingham Castle from the Trent, 1828. Collection of BNY Mellon; photography by Adam Milliron.

The British drawings and watercolours in the BNY Mellon collection were largely acquired in the 1980s, by the Mellon Financial Corporation, prior to its merger with The Bank of New York in 2007. Mellon’s corporate art collection was established to artistically enhance the workplace and to be enjoyed by its employees and customers whilst bringing an important cultural and educational asset to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Mellon Financial Corporation had its corporate headquarters. The collection initially consisted of a small group of British paintings but was carefully augmented in the early 1980s with British watercolours and American landscape paintings, with the intention of developing a group of works that would reveal the mutual transatlantic exchange of ideas that took place during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

For more information, visit the Royal Academy website here

Exhibition Review : Late Turner – Painting Set Free at the Tate Britain, 10 Sept 2014 to 25 Jan 2015

September 8, 2014 1:19 pm / Leave a comment

The EY Exhibition: Late Turner – Painting Set Free is the first major exhibition to consider the achievements of JMW Turner (1775–1851) during his final period (1835–50).

The exhibition begins in 1835 and closes with his last exhibits at the Royal Academy in 1850, bringing together 180 works from the UK and abroad.

The show includes iconic paintings like Ancient Rome; Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus exh. 1839 (Tate), which is united with its pair Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino (J. Paul Getty Museum, LA), The Wreck Buoy 1849 (National Museums Liverpool) and Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway 1844 (National Gallery).

Visiting London Guide Review

This extensive exhibition of Turner’s work coincides with considerable interest in the artist due to the Mike Leigh film Mr Turner that recently gained considerable success at Cannes.

Turner is one of the most enigmatic painters Britain has produced and the considerable interest in his work over time is a testimony to his ability to include traditional and radical elements in his work.

The Exhibition attempts to put these two elements in context by showing how Turner was able to be loved and reviled by the critics and public often at the same time.

Many of the paintings show how Turner’s mythical and biblical works often have elements of his more impressionistic style.

One of the major inspirations of Turner was the sea and there is plenty of seascapes that highlight Turner’s particular sense of colour, light and atmosphere.

The celebrated Rain,Steam and Speed is an illustration that Turner is not stuck in the past but is willing to incorporate modern technologies.

One of the rooms shows Turner’s controversial square canvases in their recently restored frames, they were considered controversial when first shown because they seemed to challenge the sensibilities of the Victorian public.

To the modern viewer the shape seems irrelevant and this room offers some of Turner’s most interesting but probably lesser known works. War : The Exile and the Rock Limpet, Shade and Darkess , The Angel Standing in the Sun are all remarkable works that show how Turner is moving away from the classical to more radical styles.

Turner enjoyed his continental travels and there are plenty of evidence of his tours around Europe, but he always seemed to return to the sea for inspiration and Room 5 shows his fascination from rough seas and storms and surprisingly Whalers.

This interesting and entertaining exhibition shows that Turner was a ‘man of his time’ and a ‘man ahead of his time’. As he reached old age he did not bask in past glories but developed techniques that were a precursor to Impressionism.

This exhibition would appeal to those who would like to find out more about one of Britain’s extraordinary painters, the large number of works show that Turner never stopped his creative quest to innovate but was sensible enough to offer something to the traditionalists.

Visiting London Guide Rating – Highly Recommended

The exhibition runs from 10 September 2014 to 25 January 2015

Admission £15 (£13.10 concessions) or £16.50 (£14.50 concessions) with Gift Aid donation

Tate Britain, Linbury Galleries

For more information and to book tickets , visit the Tate Britain website here

London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in January, we attract thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
To find out more visit the website here