Turner and his Contemporaries Exhibition at Abbot Hall Art Gallery

Event held: 12 Jan 2012 Date end: 14 Apr 2012 Time: Monday to Saturday 10.30am - 4pm (5pm from April 1st) Promoter/Organiser: Abbot Hall Art Gallery Organiser's website: Click to Visit Website Venue: Abbot Hall Art Gallery Town: Kendal County: Cumbria Postcode: LA9 5AL Venue telephone: 01539 722464 Venue email: info@abbothall.org.uk Google map Click here

Description   Turner and his Contemporaries Exhibition at Abbot Hall Your Guide 2 Events in Kendal   Turner and his Contemporaries: The Hickman Bacon Watercolour Collection is an exhibition at Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal between January 12th and April 14th, 2012. Over forty outstanding works from the magnificent collection assembled by Sir Hickman Bacon almost a century ago will be on show. This is one of the most important private holdings of British 18th and 19th century watercolours. At the centre of the exhibition will be the towering figure of JMW Turner who, pushed to ever greater heights through his association with his contemporary, Thomas Girtin, transformed the medium and raised the humble watercolour to a technical and aesthetic level previously unimaginable. The Hickman Bacon collection is particularly strong in late Turner watercolours – dazzling displays of virtuosity with shimmering strokes of colour, near abstract in their luminosity – which are now highly prized but were too unpolished at the time for all but the most discerning of collectors. Alongside these rapidly executed studies will be more finished 'exhibition' pieces by Turner from Abbot Hall's own collection, prividing a career overview of his sustained brilliance. The exhibition will also feature atmospheric and exquisitely modulated works by other exceptional innovators, such as John Robert Cozens (1752-1797) and John Sell Cotman (1782- 1842), many of whom were neglected at the time that the astute Sir Hickman Bacon acquired their watercolours but who are now recognised as true masters of the art. Both Turner and Girtin, along with other celebrated artists, including Cotman, received a solid grounding in the fundamentals of watercolour technique through copying works by the masters of their day at the informal 'academy' of Dr Thomas Monro, a physician, amateur artist and collector with a brilliant eye. Of all the pictures that Turner and Girtin studied, none were more inspirational than the wonderfully evocative landscapes of John Robert Cozens. The first gallery of the exhibition at Abbot Hall will be dominated by this artist, who, through his subtle washes of colour and tonal variation, transformed the watercolour from what was previously perceived as predominately a coloured-in drawing to a far more painterly means of expression in its own right. Hanging in close proximity to the works of Cozens will be watercolours by Thomas Girtin whose immense technical prowess proved profoundly influential despite his career being cut short at the age of only 27. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the founding of dedicated societies further elevated the watercolour to a level where it was competing with oil painting in terms of its pioneering spirit and prestige. No artist better epitomises this sense of adventure than John Sell Cotman, whose daring compositions and bold swathes of colour look fresh and decidedly modern even today. The exhibition will feature nine exceptional works by Cotman from the Hickman Bacon collection that demonstrate the true breadth of his abilities, along with watercolours by other major talents of the age - David Cox, Peter de Wint, Richard Parkes Bonington, William James Müller and John Frederick Lewis. A full colour catalogue will accompany the exhibition.   Turner and his Contemporaries Exhibition takes place from Thursday Jan. 12th to Saturday April 14th 2012   Edward Wilson: Artist of the Antarctic is also on show at Abbot Hall Art Gallery during this period Admission: Young people: Free;  Adults £6.00    |     10:30am - 4pm (Mon - Sat) Images: Thomas Girtin - View of the Gate of St Denis, taken from the suburbs c.1802; JMW Turner - The Sarner See, Evening c.1842; ©The Hickman Bacon Collection   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turner and his Contemporaries Exhibition at Abbot Hall Art Gallery - Your Events & What's On Guide for Kendal Submit Your Own Event To Your Guide 2 the Lake District