Turner and the Masters
Tate Britain, until 31 January 2010
Professor David Solkin, this exhibition’s curator, opens his introductory chapter in the catalogue (a substantial tome, packed with scholarly exegesis, special exhibition price £19.99 in paperback) in the following way:
The first 15 words of that quote should be emblazoned over the lintel of every art school in the land, though it would mean that the teachers therein would have to be capable of demonstrating its truth; tragically, I’m not convinced that many of them are capable of doing so. Be that as it may, this exhibition sets out to demonstrate Turner’s complex relationship with his artistic predecessors and contemporaries by bringing together over 100 pictures from all over the world, both by Turner himself and by the other artists he copied and challenged.
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