Note: Image
above is an engraving based on the original watercolor design.
One June 14,
2001 a Turner work broke another world record auction price.
His beautiful watercolor design: "Heidelberg with a Rainbow"
was sold at Sotheby's London auction for 2,380,500 pounds,
roughly for $3,500,00, about triple the pre-sale estimate.
Heidelberg's measures 311x521 millimeters, which is an above
average size for a Turner design for a print. Is this Turner
now the most expensive sheet of paper on our planet? This
is the second time a Turner watercolor design shattered the
world record price at auction in recent times. The first time
was in 1990 when the watercolor design created for his famous
England and Wales print series: Hampton Court Palace reached
473,000 pounds($700,000) at an auction. Heidelberg was acquired
by Agnew's, arguably the leading dealers in old masterworks
in the world. The firm's recently departed leader, the unforgettable
Evelyn Joll was an advisory Trustee of this Museum for many
years.
NOTICE
The Turner is looking for
Turner's Rockets and Blue Lights,1852
chromo executed by R.Carrick, published by Day and Sons for
study and/or purchase - owners please contact this museum
- see bottom of these pages.
IMPORTANT TURNER
LINKS
Click on any below
links to find more information about Turner:
Turner
news letter
To
the Tate GalleryLondon
New Years Greetings
From
The Turner
Museum
THE TURNER MANIFESTO FOR 2003
By Douglass Graham, Founder The Turner
Museum
Written
in the last days of 2002.
Lovers
of art isnt that all of us? went agog when The Times
headlined just before Christmas:
Turners key twin paintings: Shade and Darkness
the Evening of the Deluge and Light and Color (Geothes
Theory) The Morning after the Deluge Moses Writing the
Book of Genesis have been recovered safely. These are
Turners response to Geothes theory on colors which divided
them into dark and light ones. These twins are as enigmatic
and circular vortexlike as the adventures leading up to their
recovery.
A
few days later The Tate Gallery reported further festive news:
15 million pounds is now available, allowing for the insurance
payments for their loss less the funds spent two years ago
to purchase their title back from the insurers. That these
funds be invested in anything else than on the Turner cause
is unthinkable.
In
fact, Providence has written the perfect script to manifest
15 million pounds out of thin air. Now we have the means
- its up to us to put an end to the 150 year old sore plaguing
Turners munificent gift to humanity over 20,000 items including
hundreds of oil paintings, thousands of watercolors. Although
not part of any legality, Turner also preserved tens of thousands
of master prints in his studio, all of them now marked with
his personal blind stamp. When we strip away the legal verbiage,
Turners wish was quite simple: to have his art kept
together and displayed to the public. Despite all the
ink and parsing spent on this subject, it was only partially
answered so far. (For the melancholy details please visit
www.jmwturner.org) It remains a stain on Englands
conscience.
This
writers proposal is equally simple: to invest the
15 million pounds to establish/reestablish twin art museums
in honor of Turner: in England to fund a stand-alone Turner
Gallery and in America a new location for The Turner
Museum. The later needs only 3 of the 15 million; the
balance for that museum building I am confident shall become
available from private or public sources.
I
further propose that Londons Turner Gallery should emphasize
oil and watercolor paintings;
Americas Turner Museum master prints and their designs
(without however ever segregating them by the medium Turner
has selected for a particular work of art) with The Turner
Museum to continue the tradition of presenting art in a revolutionary
way by appealing to five of our senses simultaneously
and by organizing trend setting exhibits like Turner
and Scott; Turner and
Renoir; Turner and
Moran plus the Turner
and Hokusai now under preparation (For a glimpse please
visit www.turnermuseum.org).
The Turner Museums new catalogue now being compiled, lists
over 710 original Turner master prints up to 10,000 exhibits
are needed to display their genesis including their designs
and celebrated working proofs. The later were personally corrected/improved
by the artist with written and illustrated annotations and
are by definition unique originals.
The
Turner Museum, from a standing start in 1973, developed in
less than 20 years into one of the 99 top art museums in America
(which has about 10,000), with a volunteer (unsalaried) staff.
The Turner Museums original opening in Denver was greeted
in The Times by a prominent 7 column article across
from the editorial page, published on March 13, 197 an act
of confidence which has no been misplaced. So much for the
American side of the Atlantic.
The
proposed cleavage also makes logistic and economic sense:
with land-rich America having more space available for The
Turner Museums master print and related material and
the beauty and visitor saturated London, Turners birthplace,
a more suitable venue for the Turner Gallery. To bond
all permanent exhibitors even closer together, a small-scale
but lively annual exchange of curators and works between them
will create cross-fertilization of ideas and foster curatorial
genius.
To
forestall even the hint of turf wars reminiscent of Cyprus
Northern Ireland or Palestine a legal framework is needed
to bind them all together - modeled after the American constitution
and the Swiss Confederation overall Federal control but
independence for the constituent parts. Surely legal genius
can develop a formula refining this framework in such a manner
that the title of all the works would vest with
the confederation. This would put a happy resolution to
the 150-year-old bitter conflict about Turners glorious Bequest
as legally it would be finally all together (and
of course magnificently displayed to the public).
The12
million pound allocation for Englands Turner Gallery can
be compared to two temporary fixes: the 1 million pound Duveen
gift for Turner galleries in the Tate some 100 years ago and
Lord Clores munificent 6 million which created the present
Turner galleries at the Tate 20 years ago. But now we have
a vital addition: the intra-museum value of the Turners present
galleries. One has at the very least a jump start for an adequate
and easily accessible space for the permanent Turner Gallery
in London.
Two
museums, devoted to a single artist, one on each side of the
Atlantic, are not new. The Rodin and Dali museums are highly
successful precedents. The Dali Museum in St.Petersburg, Florida,
for example, has a reported annual cash flow of more than
3 million pounds and 450,000 visitors a year repaying the
original cost of its building every year.
That
brings us to the economics of the twin Turner Museums they
are as compelling as the moral imperative to establish a Turner
Gallery in London. The Turner Museum in its previous location,
contributed to the local Denver Colorado economy an estimated
100 pounds per visitor per day in the form of tourist spending
on items like hotels, restaurants, entertainment.
The Turner Gallery in the much more expensive London,
and with a conservative projection of one million visitors
a year I estimate would contribute at least 200 million annually
to Londons economy.
(In the light of these numbers the 15 million available
from the insurance, is a textbook example of the power of
leverage.) These
numbers conclusively prove what the canny French with their
240+ museums in the City of Paris alone, 16 devoted to single
artists have known all along: a world-class art museum
is about the best investment a community can
make. As
to the addition to our quality of lifelet the twin motto
of The Turner Museum inspired by Yehudi Menuhin and Willa
Cather:
A
FIERCE ATTACHMENT TO QUALITY - A DILIGENT SEARCH FOR PERFECTION
be
our continued focus.
Add to all above the simple fact that the space in
the present Turner galleries at the Tate is manifestly inadequate,
with many items consigned into storage and the case for
the Turner Gallery in London is quite overwhelming.
The
challenges to overcome cannot be underestimated. For example,
does England have an independent/impartial arbitrator in the
mold of Prince Albert who in 1850/51 rammed through the planning
and execution of the enormously complex and challenging Great
Crystal Palace exhibition in less than 2 years? The Prince
of Wales, Patron of the Turner Society? An American tycoon
like Bill Gates? A senior member of the Cabinet? Cherie Blair,
Q.C.?
But
the prize is - priceless!
Geothe
featured at the beginning of this Manifesto. Let Geothe speak
at the end. Let he be our guiding spirit:
Concerning
all acts of initiation, there is an elementary truththat
the moment one definitely commits oneself Providence moves
too. All sorts of things occur to help one which never otherwise
would have occurreda whole stream of events issue from the
decision, raising in ones favor all manner of unforeseen
incidents and meetings and material assistance which no person
could have dreamt would have come his way. Whatever you can
do or dream, do begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic
in it.
