Amy Concannon – författare

A landmark new presentation of the work of J.M.W. Turner, repositioning the great painter as a pioneering chronicler of contemporary life, and exploring what it really means to be a modern artist. J.M.W. Turner's career spanned revolution and the Napoleonic War, Empire, the explosion of finance capitalism, the transition from sail to steam and from manpower to mechanisation, political reform and scientific and cultural advances that transformed society and shaped the modern world. While historians have long recognised that the industrial and political revolutions of the late eighteenth century inaugurated far reaching change and modernisation, these were often ignored by artists as they did not fit into established categories of pictorial representation. This extraordinary new publication shows Turner updating the language of art and transforming his style and practice to produce revelatory, definitive interpretations of modern subjects. This is J.M.W. Turner as he has never been seen before.

A landmark new presentation of the work of J.M.W. Turner, repositioning the great painter as a pioneering chronicler of contemporary life, and exploring what it really means to be a modern artist. J.M.W. Turner's career spanned revolution and the Napoleonic War, Empire, the explosion of finance capitalism, the transition from sail to steam and from manpower to mechanisation, political reform and scientific and cultural advances that transformed society and shaped the modern world. While historians have long recognised that the industrial and political revolutions of the late eighteenth century inaugurated far reaching change and modernisation, these were often ignored by artists as they did not fit into established categories of pictorial representation. This extraordinary new publication shows Turner updating the language of art and transforming his style and practice to produce revelatory, definitive interpretations of modern subjects. This is J.M.W. Turner as he has never been seen before.

Published to coincide with the first major exhibition at Tate Britain, marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of two of Britain’s most beloved artists, Turner and Constable will give a unique insight into the work of these painters in tandem. Drawing on the very best of their work, the book reveals the ways in which the painters offered two competing and highly original visions of landscape painting, both of which remain powerfully resonant today. Each challenged the artistic norms of their time while also responding to the transformative social, political, economic and environmental developments of the early nineteenth century. Defying convention, they proved that landscape painting could be a vehicle for profound reflections on life as they saw it, paving the way for landscape art to become a vital arena for artistic expression. Despite all their differences, the ways in which these painters presented a radical challenge to artistic norms led them to be described by their contemporaries in similar ways. They were simultaneously celebrated as the two great ‘originals’ of contemporary British art but also attacked as eccentric outsiders whose work was increasingly puzzling and illegible. Turner and Constable will offer a chance to directly compare highlights from the full span of the two artists’ careers. This fresh and ambitious presentation of their work will inspire many to re-connect with these beloved artists anew and equally inspire those who are less familiar with their work to appreciate its vitality, soul and enduring power.