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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Turner's Sublime Legacy: In Dialogue with Contemporary Artists

Joseph Mallord William, Turner Quai de Venise, Palais Ducal, c. 1844.

Aug 1 – Sept 1, 2024
10 Av. Princesse Grace, 98000 Monaco

In 1796, Joseph Mallord William Turner exhibited the work Fishermen at Sea—a ghostly nocturnal scene in which the full moon seems to cradle a pitching boat in golden light. In 2006, Andrew Wilton wrote that the image was “a summary of all that had been said about the sea by the artists of the 18th century.” Age made Turner more eccentric. By the time of his death, he’d revolutionized landscape painting: his canvases were the site of overwhelming elemental forces expressed as color. In “Turner’s Sublime Legacy,” an exhibition perched on Monaco’s waterfront, works on loan from the Tate explore his representation of the sublime. Turner’s influence is then found alive and well in works by leading modern and contemporary artists such as John Akomfrah, Olafur Eliasson, Cornelia Parker, Mark Rothko, and more. —Elena Clavarino