{"id":233595,"date":"2025-10-23T05:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T05:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/233595\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T05:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T05:10:07","slug":"turner-seascapes-and-damien-hurst-sharks-liverpool-anniversary-exhibition-hopes-to-surprise-jmw-turner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/233595\/","title":{"rendered":"Turner seascapes and Damien Hurst sharks: Liverpool anniversary exhibition hopes to surprise | JMW Turner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Visitors to a major JMW Turner exhibition may well be surprised to see the opening work is by Jeff Koons, and Damien Hirst sharks, a Bridget Riley<\/a> stripe painting and some Doc Marten boots supplied by the curator herself are also on display.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurprised? That\u2019s what we\u2019re hoping,\u201d said Melissa Gustin, the curator of British art at National Museums Liverpool<\/a>. But by the end it will all make perfect sense, she hopes. \u201cThat is the vibe we are after. We want visitors to see the connections, the histories and the legacies.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year is the 250th anniversary of Turner\u2019s birth<\/a>, which has meant a lot of Turner shows around the world. Gustin has counted at least 24.<\/p>\n

She has spent two years curating the Turner show at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool<\/a>, which opens to the public on Saturday.<\/p>\n

For her, the challenge was to showcase Liverpool\u2019s incredible collection of Turners, one of the finest outside London, but also offer something different \u2013 which is why the show explores Turner\u2019s impact and legacy on later generations of artists.<\/p>\n

The show argues that Turner was grappling with many issues that are still a problem today, whether climate breakdown, immigration, or what the role of the artist is.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, if people only want to engage with the Turners, that\u2019s fine,\u201d Gustin said. \u201cThere are plenty of them to look at. If people only want to engage with the modern and contemporary, there\u2019s plenty of that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Liverpool, a good number of the city\u2019s rich 19th-century art patrons collected late Turner works when it was unfashionable.<\/p>\n

It means Liverpool has Turner paintings such as The Falls of the Clyde<\/a>, a favourite at the Lady Lever Gallery, and The Wreck Buoy<\/a>, normally on display at Sudley House.<\/p>\n

According to John Ruskin, Turner\u2019s friend and champion, The Wreck Buoy, a dramatically violent seascape with crashing waves and a dazzling rainbow, was the \u201clast oil picture he painted before his noble hand forgot its cunning\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the new exhibition, it is displayed next to a work where danger and death also loom \u2013 a Hirst work with two small sharks in formaldehyde, apparently swimming in a loop.<\/p>\n

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Elsewhere in the show, a Bridget Riley stripe painting is displayed next to two pearly Turner Venetian watercolours and a huge painting by Maggi Hambling of crashing waves she observed at Southwold, in Suffolk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very genteel place and then suddenly nature was there like a primeval force,\u201d Hambling has said<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen waves like it, it was extraordinary. It was very beautiful but terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maggi Hambling: Wall of Water XIII (2012). Photograph: \u00a9 Maggi Hambling<\/p>\n

There are also paintings by Monet, Pissarro, Ethel Walker and Sheila Fell in the show, as well as many works by Turner that are rarely seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have this stunning collection but many are works on paper, which can\u2019t be displayed very often,\u201d said Gustin. \u201cPeople don\u2019t know that we have them, so the 250th anniversary seemed a good opportunity to get them out.<\/p>\n

Gustin said the generosity of contemporary artists and their studios had been hugely important \u2013 including the studio of Koons, which almost immediately said yes to a request for the loan of a blue glass \u201cgazing ball\u201d<\/a> on a hand-painted, oversized copy of a Turner painting that hangs at Tate Britain.<\/p>\n

Jeff Koons loaned his Gazing Ball (Turner Ancient Rome), made in 2015. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

It is not a famous Turner, but it is one of Koons\u2019s favourites, the artist has said.<\/p>\n

Gustin said: \u201cI think it is a really powerful opening to the exhibition. It says so much about how the most contemporary artist, one of the most important living artists there is \u2026 is still looking and thinking so seriously about these works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, there are exhibits loaned by Gustin herself, including a Bershka Turner sweater and a pair of Turner Doc Marten boots. \u201cI bought the sweater from Asos and I wear it,\u201d she said. \u201cI will be wearing the boots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner: Always Contemporary is at the Walker Art<\/a> Gallery from 25 October to 22 February 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visitors to a major JMW Turner exhibition may well be surprised to see the opening work is by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-233595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}