J.M.W. Turner was one of Britain’s most beloved artists and one of the greatest landscape painters in history. His painting career spanned over six decades and influenced nearly every artist who would follow. This man’s legendary paintings are the subject of the latest exhibit to take up residence at the Dallas Museum of Art.
The exhibit was organized by the DMA, the National Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Tate Britain, and presents the “largest and most comprehensive retrospective ever held in the United States of the career of J.M.W. Turner.” This makes the viewing of this exhibit a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The exhibit is composed of 140 paintings that represent every major stage in Turner’s career.
Turner’s premier achievement was his mastery of the art of painting landscapes; his fascination with light and its effects lent itself easily to painting the outdoors and its sumptuous displays. It was in his native England that Turner was able to perfect his ability to capture different shades of lighting and convey them to the viewer. In his painting “Caernarvon Castle,” the viewer is transported to a magnificent seaside castle in Wales as Turner perfectly captures the luminous orange glow of the setting sun as it reflects off the crystalline water. Turner’s work is full of these breathtaking vistas, but these are not the extent of the exhibit.
Perhaps the most stunning picture on view is “The Battle of Trafalgar.” One of Turner’s few commissioned works and the largest canvas he ever painted, “Trafalgar” represents the English in a stunning naval defeat over France and is an excellent example of another facet of Turner’s painting: dramatic sea battles. Throughout the exhibit, viewers have the opportunity to see the violence and brooding of the water and storm clouds as Turner exercised his ability to portray the sea as capably as he could the land.
During the latter part of Turner’s career, his travels took him throughout the greater part of Europe, and it was here that he completed what many consider his greatest works – his landscapes and oil portraits of Venice.
“Venice appealed to Turner simply because it was so visually seductive,” said Ian Warrell, curator of the exhibition. The combination of the architecture, sunlight and water combined to form an excellent subject for Turner’s experimentation with color and the effect of sunlight on its appearance. This makes Turner’s paintings some of the brightest to have ever been produced.
Throughout the exhibition, one is acutely aware of Turner’s unique ability to respond to the evolution of humankind and technology. From his earliest years as a painter he has influenced those who would follow him. It is his earlier works, with his experimental use and fascination with light and fog that were clearly the inspiration for the impressionists of the late 19th century. Later works of blurry figures suffused with light, although controversial at the time because of their gloomy representations of death and darkness, are now seen as predecessors of modern art’s trend toward minimalism.
The exhibit will remain at the DMA until May 18, so Dallasites have plenty of time to see the Turner show. As it is a highly publicized exhibition, it is very crowded during the weekend, making the viewing of several of the more famous works difficult. Therefore, it is recommended to go during the week.
