TURNER MONET TWOMBLY: LATER PAINTINGS THIS SUMMER THE TATE LIVERPOOL ambitiously combines the work of the world renowned artists Turner, Monet and Twombly together in a single exhibition. As a lover of Monet and all things a little mixed and matched, I just had to visit. Tate Liverpool is located in a modern building at the Albert Dock, along Liverpool’s ever developing feature by waterfront. The exhibition spans across both ground and Gemma Robinson top floor of the gallery and provides stunning panoramic views across the city and River Mersey. I expected the individual artists’ work to be exhibited separately, but surprisingly they are grouped together in themes including ‘Atmosphere’, ‘A Floating World’, and ‘The Seasons’. This uniquely demonstrates the trio’s fascination with light, romanticism, texture, landscape and their natural surroundings. The gallery walls are painted with complementary atmospheric splashes of maroon, petrol blue, stone, pale sage and white that emphasises the artwork with dramatic effect. The work of JMW Turner (1775-1851), a British landscape painter, is displayed throughout in beautiful heavily gilded and antique ornate frames. This adds depth and history to his atmospheric representations of light and colour. The medium of oil paint provides a rich sheen to the surface of his canvases and I love how there is visible cracking of paint, adding further depth and texture to his paintings. The French Impressionist painter Claude Monet’s (1840-1926) work truly lived up to all my expectations. It is the first time Monet’s Water Lilies have been displayed together and available to see in the UK. You are spoilt for choice by the array of his renowned paintings on show, which are rich in textural brush strokes, extensive colour palettes and stunning light effects. All paintings have been window mounted in simple wood and gold frames, often without glass, which enables you to appreciate the quality and beauty of his work. Maybe the least well-known artist in the exhibition is Cy Twombly (1928-2011), an American abstract painter whose work surprised me the most. Twombly’s work is a stunning and intriguing mass of textural splodges combined with splatters, and dramatic brush and palette strokes. His work visually builds and reveals multiple layers that incorporate loose handwriting. ‘Hero and Leandro’ is one of my favourites, which reminds me of swirling blackberry ice-cream. It has vertical watery drips of free paint meandering down the canvas. A top layer of white paint blends into deeper colours to create rich raspberry shades as the drips develop and re-form. Interestingly Twombly wrote into wet paint with lead and colour pencils; often handwritten text is revealed faintly in the background beneath subsequent layers of paint and lettering. Links between the trio have been well documented but the Tate Liverpool is being somewhat controversial with this unlikely grouping. The work from the latter period of each painter’s life has been brought together for the first time to celebrate both their similarities and differences. Personally, I feel you should look at the artwork from a distance to truly appreciate it; not only singularly but as an exhibition in its entirety. There is a little shop located at the end of the exhibition that includes a wide range of memorabilia dedicated to the exhibition including postcards, posters, books, framed prints, stationery and interesting art materials to name but a few.
Twombly - Hero and Leandro. 1985. Oil Paint and Oil Based House Paint on Canvas.