A couple of us girls went to see the "Turner vs. The Masters" exhibit at the Tate today [insert hero's anthem of choice here, playing faintly in the distance]. Though I'm no art expert and I can appreciate the guy had skills, seems to me like he was a bit of an arrogant chappy and always trying to one-up Rembrandt and Titian and those Dutch fellas who painted lots of boats.
Where was his originality? Or even, his FEELING (the ones other than the"Anything you can do, I can do better" feelings, I mean). I don't get why he was always copying other people's work... sure, all artists borrow from the past or their contemporaries at some point or another but why the dead obvious duplication? Just to prove he was just as good? (The fact that he was from a modest upbringing may have something to do with it?) On second thought, props to JMWT for his success in self-promotion, something many artists fail to do... and no one knows or cares about their work until they've been dead 50 years. But I digress...
My favorite paintings of Turner's are his later ones, like this one "The Snow Storm". You may not even see the boat in the picture, may not even guess without looking at the title that this is a picture of a storm at sea, but the chaos and sense of foreboding is very clear. I love the mash-up of colours and shadows, all competing and over-riding each other in a big noise that I imagine what the sound of fear must sound like. A lot of his later work (e.g. the one above painted in Venice) is like this, less troubled by trying to be better than some other dead master... and instead just going for purer expression.
-- kelise72
No comments:
Post a Comment