Turner - a genius in his time. Boris. Kalendariov

§ September 23rd, 2008 § Filed under Turner

I have always appreciated the beauty of art (actually, i fell in love with realism art in my senior year art history class), but Sunday’s experience at the Turner special exhibition at the MET was surreal.  Initially, I got lost at the museum, but thanks to a few security guards and a wonderful young chap from France, i found my way.  From the moment i walked in i was in awe.  The giant painting at the entrance was my bait and i was quickly reeled in.  What i noticed as i passed by all his paintings was that his themes were all mostly marine based.  He had great use of colors and knew how to blend in the light and dark colors, which in many ways portrayed a sense of emotion coming out of the painting.  It was as if a piece of history and action was sealed in with his paintings.

Turner was a powerful painter and yet it seemed like he painted these magnificent paintings with ease.  Some of the paintings that i enjoyed were the Battle of Trafalgar, Disaster at Sea, and Sea Monsters they all had some sort of focal point.  He brilliantely painted these painting so that there was an effect of actual light posed at the focal point.  Moreover, i noticed that there were different levels of detail in his pictures.  In other words, the buildings and architecture were superb in that they contained the most minute details, the people, on the other hand, had indiscernable faces.  Most of the humans were portrayed almost faceless.

As Turner matured with age his paintings began to be shaped differently as well.  Toward his later years i felt his paintings were more abstract.  His hand was a medium that transposed his emotions and thoughts on to a piece of canvas and he did that wonderfully.  I really enjoyed his exhibition and it inspired me to want to go to the MET more often and even start to paint.  Although the latter might just be a dream.