Saturday 8 October 2016

JMW Turner: Adventures in Colour at Turner Contemporary Margate, some thoughts towards a review.

My first thoughts on this exhibition are basically wow.

Take over a hundred JWM Turners paintings and hang them in a gallery and you could get almost anything, particularly just drawing on The Tate, but this isn’t what has happened here.

At Turner Contemporary in Margate now are Turners I have never seen before, Turners I didn’t know about, Turners from all over the world.

How to write a review of this as a whole exhibition is way beyond me, I’m a visual person and no wordsmith so I will take the first three paintings through the door, turn left on the wall.

You can’t aren’t allowed to take photos, not allowed to paint in the ordinary sense of using a brush and a pot of water or solvent, however there was no objection to my brush with water in the handle. The only snag with it being that because it isn’t as good as an ordinary brush I have only used it one when I bought it about six months ago.

Anyway I skived off from working in my bookshop in Ramsgate, it’s all arts – so I feel justified, is that right? And off I went to Margate without the highest of hopes there have been complaints about the gallery not having enough Turners, having the wrong Turners – well something like that.


Here are the first three, all significant paintings, I have lifted the pictures off the web.

Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Title
Dolbadarn Castle - Study for Diploma Picture
Date
?1800–2
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
Support: 465 x 340 mm
Collection
The National Library of Wales
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Title
Fishermen upon a Lee-Shore, in Squally Weather
Date
Exhibited 1802
Medium
Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions
Support: 915 x 1220 mm
Collection
Southampton City Art Gallery
Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Title
Bonneville, Savoy, with Mont Blanc
Date
Exhibited 1803
Medium
Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions
Support: 915 x 1220 mm
Collection
Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of Nancy Hamon in memory of Jake L. Hamon with additional donations from Mrs. Eugene D. McDermott, Mrs James H. Clark, Mrs Edward Marcus and the Leland Fikes Foundation, Inc.

Obviously there are over a hundred left to go, so what did I do? Three circuits of the gallery – totally overwhelmed, too many Turners – can you have too many? I did consider standing in front of each painting and trying to sketch it but there are levels of making an idiot of oneself that are beyond me, so I settled for sitting on the bench near the entrance to the first galley and trying to sketch the people and the first three paintings in the background. 
Bonneville, Savoy, with Mont Blanc far left, Fishermen upon a Lee-Shore in the middle and Dolbadarn Castle on the right, since you ask. You didn't? Never mind.

The brush, ok you didn't ask about that either. I went to the galley cafe and took a photo of the equipment.


Sketched the people in the cafe, the view out the window, what else can you do?   

Back here in my bookshop you will note Mog the Cat – what was it? Oh yes forgetful, well we apper to have got some more in, see http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/when-marnie-was-there-in-bookshop.html

‘s a funny old world – you go off to the local art gallery, just down the road, hoping for a bit of inspiration and there is a world class Turner exhibition that completely bowls you over.

So yes get on the train don’t forget the gallery closes on Mondays, my bookshop closes on Thursdays and Sundays – you have to be careful about the when and see this exhibition – you won’t be disappointed.  


The final picture at the exhibition Richard Doyle's Cartoon, says it all really

1 comment:

  1. I can't wait to go, bravo you for sneaking off work.

    ReplyDelete

Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.