News >

Turner and the Elements is now open!

'Magnificent paintings worth crawling on your hands and feet to Margate to see'
BBC Radio 4 Front Row

Our first major show of the painter’s work explores the important role that the depiction of the elements played in his landscape watercolours and paintings.

The exhibition brings together 88 works; 76 watercolours and 12 late oil paintings, many from the Tate collection. Turner’s innovative painting technique and the influence of scientific and technological developments during his lifetime were to revolutionise landscape painting.

Today, nearly two centuries since Turner’s visits to Margate, see first-hand how his dynamic concept of landscape, unconventional use of colour and near abstract watercolours and paintings secured his place as the artist of the elements and the founder of modern landscape painting.

Turner and the Elements has already received glowing reviews in the press, see the links below

'Utterly uplifting' 
Alastair Sooke, The Telegraph, 31 January

'It is Turner at his most brilliant' Laura Cumming, The Observer , 28 January 

'Of the several Turner shows opening in 2012, this may be the most exhilarating. Start here.'
Laura Cumming, The Observer, 28 January

'Turner and the Elements is a visual joy and an intellectual pleasure.'
'Quietly magnificent'
The arts desk, 30 January

'Set against the backdrop of a bright and crisp winter’s day, a visit to Turner Contemporary is a refreshing taste of nature outside the busy London environment. The natural light penetrates the gallery space imbuing the works with a life-like quality and the simplicity of display highlights the work of Turner in an innovative way. Turner’s influence throughout subsequent art history is obvious in the work of the Impressionists, but beyond the nineteenth century, the paintings remain dynamic and exciting for artists interested in depicting place.'
Emily Sack, Aesthetica  2 February 2012 

'radiant'

‘It seems apt that an exhibition so clearly focused on the more hidden and experimental aspects of his art should have been staged in the town that was, more than any other, his bolt-hole from convention.’
**** Andrew Graham-Dixon, The Telegraph, 5 Feb 2012 

BBC Radio 4 Front Row

The Guardian

ITV Meridian

The Telegraph (Alastair Sooke)

The Telegraph (Andrew Graham-Dixon)