Month Two: In Conclusion

I think I'm learning a bit more about proper pacing for this project. Or at least how I'd like to pace things, which is slow & easy, and spread out thru the month. I did the equivalent of a last-minute cramming session in the past week, and while it was fun & educational, I would've liked to have spent more time with the casual learning, and less time feeling "oh god, I need to catch up." Because really, who wants that? (Not me.)

That being said, I loved loved loved Peter Ackroyd's J.M.W. Turner. (The "smaller book" if you've followed my posts.) A little book, but so thorough! In the space of a few days I learned so much, and had a fabulous time reading it over beers at Commonwealth. I finished the book last night, then came home and finally rewatched the Simon Schama Power of Art episode. Nice stuff! A great one-two punch of art education.

I have a feeling my love for Joseph Mallord William Turner will grow faster & stronger than my love for Yoko Ono. Which is, I suppose, as it should be.

This has been an amazing month of learning. Below is a quote from Ackroyd's "Turner" book that I added to Goodreads tonight, because it made me smile so much when I first read it.

Simon Schama's J.M.W. Turner

From his "Power of Art" series. Over the top & catty as ever. I love it.

This clip is from somewhere towards the middle of the show, but I like that it just sortof tosses you into the action. There are links on the YouTube page for parts 1 thru 4.

Snow Storm - Steamboat off a Harbor's Mouth (1842)

Death on a Pale Horse (1830)

Sunrise With Sea Monsters (1845)

Tate Britain: Talking Turner

From the Tate Museum, home of many Turner paintings.

Turner's art has always been controversial. This section shows how artists and writers such as Constable, Ruskin, and Matisse responded to his work; we have also invited a number of present day artists, writers, historians and others to talk about Turner, or about a particular work in the new displays in the Clore Galleries.

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John Ruskin was incredibly fond of Turner's paintings, and worked tirelessly to promote them after Turner's death. (At that point Turner was more mocked than revered by critics - it seems Ruskin can be credited for lot of the posthumous respect Turner acquired. May we all be so lucky to have someone like Ruskin to champion our works.)

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via the Tate:

John Ruskin on Turner

'Introduced to-day to the man who beyond all doubt is the greatest of the age; greatest in every faculty of the imagination, in every branch of scenic knowledge; at once the painter and poet of the day...
I found in him a somewhat eccentric, keen-mannered, matter-of-fact, English-minded gentleman: good-natured evidently, bad-tempered evidently, hating humbug of all sorts, shrewd, perhaps a little selfish, highly intellectual, the powers of his mind not brought out with any delight in their manifestation, or intention of display, but flashing out occasionally in a word or a look.'

The Art Teacher

Rufus Wainwright. All this having been done, a Turner, I own one.

Back from a Pause.

Yeesh. Being sick for a week and overwhelmed with the rest of life certainly does a number on the ol' casual-research skills. At any rate, I'm glad I ordered some books thru the library a while back because they are here and now I can read them!

You can't really tell from the photo, but Standing in the Sun is a monster-sized biography: 478pgs, including notes & index - I'm both excited & scared. Maybe I'll start with the smaller book? The book on the bottom, JMW Turner: Works on Paper from American Collections, is a little helpful, and a little frustrating; aside from a few color plates, most of the images are rendered in black & white. But I think it'll still prove to be educational.

Onward!

A little more knowledge.

Well, no wonder I had a hard time remembering Joseph Mallord William Turner's name. (Plus, apparently there is another semi-contemporary English watercolorist with the name William Turner.) But I should've at least remembered the William part, since we sell William Turner paper by Hahnehmuhl where I work.

In any case, this is my guy:

Self-portrait, c. 1799

I did make a trip to the library this morning to see what I could find, but only one of their giant art books had anything more than a page devoted to him. tsk tsk.
One of the books was from the National Gallery of Art, and featured this image -

Mortlake Terrace, 1827

It's not necessarily symbolic of the works by Turner that I like the most, but it does have a great feeling of light to it. (Which was kindof his thing.)

There was a little story in the book about how when the painting was first exhibited, a colleague of Turner's walked up to it and said something like "Hmm, it could use more of a focal point in the middle here" and then proceeded to take a piece of black paper, cut out a shape of a dog, and stuck it to the painting. Turner came by later, was apparently not upset, and in fact varnished over the paper and painted the dog into the image. The book calls it one of the more unusual artistic collaborations.
The National Gallery of Art website credits the whole idea to Turner, so there seems to be some internal debate on the matter. I think it's all very charming (tho I might not think that if someone stuck a paper dog to one of my photographs. Well, actually, that could be kindof awesome.)

MONTH TWO: TURNER!

So, I'm purposefully going into this month's topic without doing any research first, just to see how much on an ass I can make out of myself.

I had been turning this possibility around in my head, and once I saw last Tuesday's sunset, I knew it had to be.
I recently started an art class, have been thinking about art in general on many different levels, and for some reason this fellow kept popping into my head. The funny thing is, I can't for the life of me remember his first name, and aside from a general positive pleasant feeling around the concept of his work, I mostly just associate him with gorgeous reddish skies. My other connections with him are thru a Rufus Wainwright song and an episode devoted to him in Simon Schama's The Power of Art series. (Obviously not nearly enough of that episode stuck with me, so one of my assignments this month is to watch it again.)

So here we go, diving into February mostly ignorant but eager to learn!