Multiple
Genius
By
Turner Museum curator Isis Graham
As a starter: J.M.W.Turner was a
"triple" genius:
An artistic genius, one of the dozen
or so greatest ever
A marketing genius - he sold his own
works at premium prices - Turner, the self-made man, the richest artist of his age.
A production genius - he reduced the
time needed to create master-prints by more than 90% and maintain the highest standards of
quality
Not many artists were triple geniuses
in such widely differing fields. Only Rubens and Picasso come readily to my mind.
Print production was almost forced upon
Turner. When still in his 20s, the prices of his oil paintings soared beyond the means of
most art collectors including professional artists, many his most ardent admirers. To
satisfy the growing demand from the public, Turner turned to print production, a
democratic solution in the age of the American revolution.. Turner tackled the challenge
with characteristic caution spiced with innovative zeal.
To produce a master-print can take
anywhere from three to six months - with traditional methods. Turner also created more
than 800 master-prints in addition to the same number of oils and over 20,000 water-colors
and sketches. He compressed centuries, nay, a millennium of labor into his life-span of 76
years.
How did he do it? Turner hit upon a
superb solution. As a starter, he created a print-design, like an architect creates a
design, a plan for a building - usually a water-color. That took very little time - he
was a fast worker and was known to have tossed off as many as six water-colors in a single
day. For the tedious and even dirty drudgery of translating the design onto the surface of
a steel or copper plate Turner trained nearly one hundred craftsmen. To kick-start the
print-making process, Turner on occasion began the process of translating his own design
by sketching/etching an outline directly onto the surface of .the plate, usually made of
copper or steel. That took even less time than a water-color. Now the drudgery of the
detail-work began. That was handed over to the assistants, much like an architect turns
over the execution of his design to others. Most artists before Turner's time left it at
that. Not Turner. He supervised the drudgery with merciless severity, with continuous
corrections. Turnover among his assistants became a problem. Turner had no patience for
second-raters and the good ones tended to resent his constant corrections. The bottom
line: he cut down drastically his personal involvement in the printmaking process from
(say) three months to just a few days without compromise in quality. That is genius.
Turner warmed up to the job with
experience. He made a virtue out of necessity. He made the daunting task of constant
corrections a vital part of his creative process: (a) it gave him an opportunity to
improve the image of the design; and (b) it of course ensured a tight control over his
craftsman known as engravers, and thus control over the all important quality of his
prints.
Finally virtue became profitable:
Turner charged his publisher dearly for these corrections, euphemistically called
"touches". By and by, the sheets - called touched proofs, proofs - on which
Turner made his corrections in pencil, often embellished with a little drawing and
succinct or detailed written instructions, became some of the most thought-after collector
items. But that is another subject.
Thanks to all the corrections Turner
made, the result, that is the quality, of the published prints, was predictable:
magnificence! Regardless of the variety and number of assistants employed, they appeared
to be...well...Turners, worthy of the great master, J.M.W. Turner. His prints became
instant "best-sellers". To give us an idea how well Turner succeeded one only
has to read contemporary accounts. More than one connoisseur preferred his prints over his
oils - the oils surface tended to crack and the canvas to deteriorate - and over his
water-colors which were considered fragile and subject to catastrophic fading. His prints,
on the other hand, were impressed upon high quality longest-lasting paper. They also took
very little space, they were paper-thin - no small consideration in the turbulent
centuries that followed.
Then Turner screwed it all up, so to
speak - with his impeccable honesty! A trait rarer than rubies in the art business. How
many us for example know who were (say) Picasso's assistants in his print-making ventures
- practically no-one, as they were given zero credit on the prints the public sees. Not so
Turner. He gave full credit to his assistants - equivalent in importance of a by-line in a
newspaper - that is on the face of his prints. On the left side, immediately below the
southern border of his prints, J.M.W.Turner was credited with the design, and on the right
side, perhaps even more prominently ( it was on the right), the name of the craftsman
appeared, proceeded by the words: engraved by.
Unintentionally, Turner's honesty
produced incredible confusion over the centuries. The public gained the impression that
somehow his assistants participated in the creative process although their role was not
much different from the part played by (say) the master stone-cutter or highly skilled
carpenter in the building of a church or museum. As a result we now have the following
spectacle: while the architect continues to get credit as the creative genius behind a
memorable building, the authorship of Turner's prints is attributed to his assistants! The
result was easily predictable: a sickening deflation in the value of Turner's beautiful
masterpieces on paper. But there is a silver-lining! This severe under-valuation creates
interesting opportunities for the discriminating collector. |
