Turner, Monet, Twombly. Later Paintings

The groundbreaking exhibition Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings opens at the Moderna Museet in 100 days!

In just 100 days the groundbreaking exhibition Turner, Monet Twombly: Later Paintings will open at Moderna Museet. The exhibition focuses on the later works by J. M. W. Turner, Claude Monet and Cy Twombly, three of the greatest painters of the last 150 years. Many important loans from private lenders and institutions as Tate Britiain, Museum of Modern Art, New York and Musée d’Orsay have been secured in order to produce this once in a lifetime exhibition. Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings, curated by Jeremy Lewison, is organized by Moderna Museet and will tour to Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and Tate Liverpool in 2012.

J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) was one of the most innovative painters of the Romantic era, whose works Monet admired on his stay in London in 1871 and challenged in his later depictions of London and Venice. Cy Twombly (1928) has also had a lifelong interest in Turner and in the last twenty years has demonstrated a strong affinity for the work of Claude Monet (1840-1926) the founder of French Impressionism. The exhibition Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings is an unique opportunity to see these three important artists together and to consider their common preoccupations.

- All three artists have been considered radical in their time and met with negative comment when pushing the boundaries of the conventions of painting. Their late work has a looseness and an intensity that comes from the confidence of age, when notions of finish and completion are modified. By presenting Twombly’s paintings alongside Monet’s and Turner’s we are not only asserting his importance among contemporary painters but suggesting that, active though he still is, his work will resonate in the history of painting in the same way that Turner and Monet already do, says Jeremy Lewison, curator of the exhibition, formerly Director of Collections at Tate and now working as an independent curator.

In addition to an outstanding group of late paintings by Turner on loan from Tate Britain, never seen before in Sweden, Moderna Museet is fortunate in obtaining key Turner and Monet loans from many major international collections including, among others, Musée d’Orsay, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York, National Museum of Wales, Kunsthaus Zürich, Yale Center for British Art, Beyeler Foundation, Von der Heydt Museum, Museum Folkwang and National Gallery Washington D.C. among others. In addition there has never been a major Twombly show in Sweden and the many works coming from private collections will be shown here for the first time.

Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings will examine each artist in some depth, and will introduce their work in new ways both to new audiences and to those already familiar with the artists’ work. The exhibition will feature more than 60 paintings, and will consider not only the art historical links and affinities between the painters, but also the common characteristics of and motivations underlying their late style. It highlights modernity and classicism in the work of all three artists, characteristics that will emerge by their unique juxtaposition in this exhibition. In their later phases the three artists are not only preoccupied by mortality and memory but retain an interest in the Romantic outlook and the sublime.

A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition with an in-depth essay by Jeremy Lewison. Designed by Patric Leo it is published by Hatje Cantz Verlag in three language editions.

Moderna Museet, 8 October 2011 – 15 January 2012 Curator: Jeremy Lewison Assistant Curator: Jo Widoff, Moderna Museet

Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 8 October 2011 – 15 January 2012 Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 11 February 2012 – 28 May 2012 Tate Liverpool, 22 June - 28 October 2012.

The exhibition at the Moderna Museet is sponsored by Brummer & Partners.

Turner, Monet, Twombly
Later Paintings
(William Turner, Claude Monet, Cy Twombly)
Kurator: Jeremy Lewison

Stationen:
08.10.2011 - 15.01.2012 Moderna Museet Stockholm
11.02.2012 - 28.05.2012 Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
22.06.2012 - 28.10.2012 Tate Liverpool