In His Element: After Nyne Meets JMW Turner: Adventures in Colour Curator Ian Warrell
Following the success of Turner and the Elements in 2012, Turner Contemporary presents a major exhibition of work by JMW Turner and the fullest survey of the artist’s watercolours of Margate yet to be shown at the gallery. JMW Turner: Adventures in Colour is the first exhibition to examine this fundamental theme in relation to Turner, exploring the familiar outline of his life and art in a new way. Colour is the essence of JMW Turner’s work, and his distinctive, sometimes eccentric use of vibrant colour was central to his success as an artist.
Curated by Ian Warrell, this is the first exhibition to examine the radical use of colour in Turner’s work. It features over 100 works, including watercolours of Margate.
After Nyne's Editor Claire Meadows met with Ian to discuss his curatorial philosophy for this show, and his reflections on five years of Turner Contemporary.
Ian, what inspired your passion for Turner?
Like most people, I knew the most celebrated pictures by Turner when I was growing up. But the things that really caught my attention as a student were the unfinished canvases from his later years. There was one in particular that seemed to be just smears of pink, yellow and white paint. It was hung high at the Tate with nothing to explain what was going on. So it was really satisfying many years later to be the person who established that it was Turner's response to a commission for a view of the sunset from the summit of Mount Rigi. I saw it again recently in the "Unfinished" show at the Met Breuer in New York. The potential for further development is clearly there, but it's still amazing just as it is.
Tell us a little about Turner’s relationship with Margate
Turner had known Margate first as a child when it was still primarily a fishing port, although the fashion for sea bathing was increasingly attracting fashionable visitors. Over the years he regularly went back, watching it develop. He produced many paintings and watercolours of the town, generally from the sea, or from the west side of the bay (as you see it when you arrive nowadays by train). His greatest engagement with it came from the early 1830s onwards, when he began making extended weekend trips, something that was made possible by the introduction of a regular steam boat service between central London and Margate, sixty-five mies away. He apparently told the art critic John Ruskin that he considered the skies above Margate 'the loveliest in Europe', but he was also drawn there repeatedly by his landlady, Sophia Booth, then recovering from the loss of her second husband. The timing of their meeting could not have been better because she was able to fill the void left by the death of Turner's father a few years earlier. In the early Victorian era, such liaisons were profoundly shocking. The ageing Turner, however, was simply glad of companionship and a helpmate. He touchingly described Mrs Booth as the 'handmaid of Art'.
Why is this exhibition important?
The exhibition at Turner Contemporary is exciting because it allows people to see the full range of Turner's output, while also lingering on themes or aspects of his life that connect specifically to the issue of colour. We've also tried to present a less familiar image of Turner, focusing on works that have not been seen in the shows in London in recent years. As well as borrowing from the Tate, we are featuring paintings and watercolours from nearly thirty different lenders, some in the USA. One section of the show highlights some little-known, but really boldly coloured sketches Turner made on the Mediterranean coast, around Marseille and Genoa. But in Margate it will be particularly interesting to step inside from the outlook Turner knew so well and see the largest group of his responses to it so far displayed at Turner Contemporary. This includes very detailed scenes as well as atmospheric studies of sea and sky. Some of the finest come from a private collection, and are only rarely shown; so we are really privileged to be able to include them.
What single thing do you take as a starting point for an exhibition of this scale?
Curating an exhibition is a way of sharing my enthusiasm for facts, ideas and things; a bit geeky, I know. But it's fascinating and rewarding to present something that is well-known in a new light, or to put something unfamiliar into the spotlight. For this project there were various watercolours still unmounted in boxes at the Tate that I had long hoped to see together - the ones of the Mediterranean coast. I'm really glad to find other people are enjoying them too.
Five years of Turner Contemporary already. What thoughts come to mind when you reflect on this period?
It's been wonderful to see the range of really ambitious exhibitions staged, some quite challenging, but others just a joy to visit. They've really helped put Margate on the map as a cultural destination. My own favourite was "Curiosity", which like this summer's "Seeing Round Corners", brought together art from different periods as well as objects that either beguiled or left me intrigued. Victoria Pomery and her colleagues are doing an incredible job with the resources they have. We all know that times are as tough as ever in the art sector, but for a gallery like Turner Contemporary the support of individuals is crucial, and much appreciated. You'd be amazed by how much a big show like this costs!
What was special about Turner’s use of colour?
Turner took a while to liberate himself from conventional expectations, but once he did, his use of colour was entirely on his own terms. That's not to say that he completely abandoned a desire to represent nature as he saw it. He painted for effect and was thrilled to be able to make use of the latest pigments as soon as they became available. Sometimes this could be hazardous if the stability of the colours had not been tested. He was just as experimental with the papers he worked on, often using blue, grey or brown sheets as the background for his images, instead of the usual white. A crucial factor was his involvement in the process of seeing his images reproduced as black and white engravings, which made him think much more about the relationship of tones, as well as the sharper contrasts of light and dark.
Where is Turner’s influence most obvious?
Turner's pictures have been accessible in the national collections since 1856, which means they have inevitably been seen by generations of artists since then. We know, for instance, that Monet and Pissarro studied them while they were exiled in London in 1870. And more recently artists as diverse as Tracey Emin and James Turrell have looked to Turner as a reference point for very different reasons. So his art continues to go forward.
This is a touring exhibition. What has the reaction been so far?
At the Hotel de Caumont in Aix-en-Provence, where the show was installed over the summer, visitors have particularly enjoyed the variety of works on display. Obviously they expected to find famous paintings like Shade and Darkness and its pair Light and Colour, but they have also been thrilled to find that Turner visited Aix - if only very briefly - and to see a digital selection of the sketches he made there and elsewhere. Touchscreen technology, though not in itself expensive, really helps bring the pleasure of seeing fragile artworks to a much bigger audience. Another highlight there proved to be the section focusing on Turner's painting materials and the contemporary ideas about colour he explored, which provides a window into the intricacies of Goethe's influential colour theories.
What is your favourite piece in the exhibition?
Do I have to choose? There are quite a few, but if pushed I would be very happy to accept a small view of the River Loire. It's smaller than an iPad mini, but captures perfectly the sense of being out on a still river at daybreak. The scene is built up effortlessly in simple areas of watercolour, yet creates the illusion of incredible spatial depth. Land and water merge inseparably, with not a single line anywhere - just colour.
JMW Turner: Adventures in Colour
Until Sun 8 Jan 2017
Turner Contemporary Rendezvous Margate Kent CT9 1HG
IMAGE: JMW Turner Vermilion Towers c.1838
