J.M.W. Turner: Turbulent Abstraction
Friday, March 25, 2022 at 8:00AM 
J.M.W. Turner - Hannibal and his Men Crossing the Alps - 1810-1812 - Oil on canvas - Tate Britain, London (click photo for larger image)Joseph Mallard William (J.M.W.) Turner (1775-1851) was a Romantic landscape painter whose expressionistic studies of light, color, and atmosphere were unmatched in their range and sublimity. Perhaps the greatest landscapist of the 19th century, he became a pioneer in the study of light, color, and atmosphere. He anticipated the French Impressionists in breaking down conventional formulas of representation; but, unlike them, he believed that his works should always express significant historical, mythological, literary, or other narrative themes.
His representation of the confrontation humans experienced upon encountering the effects of their own machine inventions in the modern era was an early attempt to engage with the world-changing Industrial Revolution. Even more influential was his mode of representation. Turner’s impressionistic renderings of the effects of nature that expressed inner psychological states, are essentially examples of early abstraction—before that experimentation even began in visual art.
Turner's work, especially his late work, was deeply admired by the abstract painter Mark Rothko. One can see the influence in Rothko's large canvases of subtly shifting layers of color. In 1966, when Rothko saw a Turner exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he was quoted as saying, "This guy Turner, he learnt a lot from me.”
Dr. Jill will be holding a single-session ONLINE class on Turner this Friday, March 25th from 11am - 12pm. Click HERE to Register.
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