I went to “Tate Britain’s Turner Exhibition: Painting the Sublime and Dialogue with Contemporary Art.” I knew that Turner was an important painter in art history, but I didn’t know what made him so. This exhibition was a somewhat interesting project that displayed not only Turner’s works but also contemporary art pieces alongside them.
By displaying contemporary art as well, it was an exhibition where I could feel how Turner’s works connect with contemporary art.
One of the works that left a strong impression on me at the beginning was “The Avalanche in the Grisons.”
I was glued to the powerful, dynamic depiction of the avalanche. A heavy, cloudy sky spreads across the upper left of the canvas, which I felt intensified the contrast with the avalanche. The house about to be crushed by the avalanche is painted surprisingly small. In the face of the overwhelming power of nature, human life seems truly fragile.
This work stood apart from my preconceived notion that paintings are meant to depict beautiful things. It is possible to depict not the beauty of nature, but its terror and the limitations of human power. I thought this must be one of the paintings referred to as “sublime.”
“Glacier and Source of the Arveyron, Going up to the Mer de Glace” was an interesting work in its contrast between the glacier and the forest. Even though it is a painting of a glacier, the forest looks like the main subject no matter how you look at it.
The following work, “The Source of the Arveyron in the Valley of Chamouni,” which also features a glacier as its subject, had a different feel to it.
The series of glacier photographs by Olafur Eliasson displayed after that was a masterpiece. In particular, the work that places photographs of glaciers taken in 1999 and 2019 side-by-side allows one to visually grasp the changes that have occurred over those 20 years.
I felt the change in the relationship between nature and humanity from Turner’s time to the present day. The glacier Turner painted felt like the sheer vastness and threat of nature that exists there, beyond human power. On the other hand, Eliasson’s photographs allow for a realistic observation of nature changing as a result of human industrial activity affecting the global environment.
From an era where humans confronted the threats of nature to an era where human activity itself changes nature. By viewing the two groups of works in succession, I felt that the relationship between nature and humanity has changed significantly. That said, I should add that Turner lived during the Industrial Revolution and also painted steam and soot.
“Venice, the Bridge of Sighs, Ducal Palace and Custom-House, Canaletti: Painting” depicted the Venetian cityscape in such detail that it left me feeling a bit surprised. It is different from the Turner works I have seen so far, where the landscape seems to dissolve into light and atmosphere.
Perhaps the mention of Canaletto in the title is related. Canaletto was a painter who precisely depicted the urban landscape of Venice, so this work might be an homage to him. The color of the sky was also more light blue than I had expected, and it looked like a somewhat orderly, traditional landscape painting.
I was surprised that even within the same artist’s work, the style could be so different.
The group of Venetian works that followed seemed to show the outlines of the landscapes Turner painted dissolving into the background.
In “The Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute, Venice,” everything except for the boat in the center of the canvas seems to be dissolving. While the details of the palace are relatively clear, the sky changes like a gradient from white in the upper left to light blue on the right.
In “Venice: Santa Maria della Salute,” the outlines seemed almost completely dissolved. Both the church and the boats are drawn with faint outlines, but there is a sense of unity across the entire canvas. It resembled the misty landscape paintings I saw a little earlier, and it was the kind of “Turner-esque” work I had in mind. The pastel-like color palette was also impressive, reminiscent of the later Impressionists.
“Venice: Noon” also appeared to have most of the canvas dissolved. However, the way the sky is painted here is somewhat rougher. Even with similarly ambiguous outlines, the impression varies greatly depending on the work.
The atmosphere of the canvas changes not only based on whether the outlines remain or dissolve, but also through the layering of colors, brushstrokes, and the expression of the sky. While looking at the Venetian works, I once again felt the breadth of Turner’s expression.
“Landscape with Water” is a work with Tivoli as its motif. As noted in the commentary, it is an oil painting that looks like a watercolor, with the entire canvas dissolved.
“Petworth: The Long Crypt” also has ambiguous outlines, but you can just barely make out the arched ceiling of the basement. I found it to be a unique impression for a work depicting architecture. Even though it is supposed to be depicting the structure of a building, it does not attempt to clearly define the shapes.
In “Venetian Scene,” the subject and background are completely fused together.
“Venice with the Santa Maria della Salute” is also almost completely dissolved. With its pastel-like hues, it again reminded me of the later Impressionists.
By the time I reached “Lake Lucerne: The Bay of Uri from Brunnen,” I could no longer immediately tell what was being depicted. Is the green and brown visible in the lower left of the canvas land? It seems as though the lake spreads out from there toward the back. Is it foggy? The boundary between the lake and the sky is also almost indistinguishable.
“Waves Breaking against the Wind” is a little different from the works I have seen so far, as the focus is on the waves. The appearance of the whitecaps is very clear. Turner sometimes used reddish-brown on the sea surface, which I had always found mysterious. In this work as well, there are grayish and yellowish-green parts in the background, and the color tones shift. Even so, there is a sense of unity across the entire canvas. Although the colors are diverse, they do not look disjointed.
“Rough Sea and Dolphins” looks like it is already in the realm of abstract painting. The handling of color and light is typical of Turner, but it is barely recognizable as the sea because of the whitecaps here and there. Yellow and red are also used, and the boundary between the sea and the sky is mixed. Although the title mentions dolphins, I could not find where they were.
Even though it is supposed to be a landscape, as I look at it, I lose track of what is being depicted. I felt that Turner was not only blurring the outlines of his subjects but also making the colors, light, and the movement of the waves themselves the protagonists of the canvas.
Regarding color, I felt he was using various experimental approaches. Goethe’s “Theory of Colours” was also on display, and I believe it was written that Turner owned a copy.
In his watercolors, he apparently used a unique method called “color beginnings,” where he would start by laying down colors. I was surprised that he would start with color before painting the picture.
In the final exhibition room was “Three Seascapes.” It is an oil on canvas work. This, too, looks like it is in the realm of abstract painting. I can see what look like three layers on the canvas. I thought the foreground was the shoreline, the middle was the sea, and the background was the sky, but in reality, it was a work where three seascapes were stacked vertically.
Next to it, Mark Rothko’s “Untitled” was displayed. It is a work consisting of two layers of color, and I felt it was very similar to Turner’s “Three Seascapes.” I realized that Turner’s paintings and contemporary art are connected.
Rothko’s work is also titled “Untitled,” and one cannot help but think about what it represents. However, I thought that instead of thinking it represents something specific, one could also appreciate it by simply looking at the two layers of color themselves. You can observe the layering of colors, the boundaries, and what kind of sensations the canvas brings to you.
Rothko’s work was the end of the exhibition.
Turner depicted the terror of nature and the smallness of humanity, making color, light, and the movement of waves the protagonists rather than outlines. That direction seemed to connect with Impressionism, abstract painting, and contemporary works like Rothko’s. I think this was an exhibition where I could understand, not just as knowledge but with my own eyes, that Turner is an important painter in art history.
