My Book Ⅰ
Written by Hiroyuki Ikeda
［No.6］ J.M.W. Turner Exhibition 2/11/2014
The other day, I went to the Turner exhibition with my friend. My friend Shusuke Yasufuku emigrated to Himeji from Yokohama after he left his company and he has been enjoying home gardening on leisurely days as his hobby. He was a close friend in my high school years and even 50 years since then we have been keeping a long term friendship. Although he does not know much about Kobe yet ( it’s only been two years since he came to Himeji), on that day, Saturday, it was Shunsetsu, Chinese new year’s second day, so we met at Motomachi Station and went to have lunch in Motomachi Chinatown. Mr. Yasufuku liked the chinese noodles we had for lunch very much and after lunch we went to the crowded street of Nankinmachi Chinatown. We could not see the Lion dance with the congestion but only heard the sound of Lion dancing, Shishi-mai. So, eventually, we went to the Kobe City Museum after buying Chinese wine from my acquaintance wine seller in Nankinmachi.
The exhibition was not so crowded but we were overwhelmed by the works of Turner. J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) was leading the landscape painter of the UK and also he continued to pursue a pictorial expression of his own throughout his life. It is said he is a painter who dramatically increased the position of the United Kingdom and the possibilities of the landscape painting world. After the 18th century, going on a journey become popular among wealthy people and the development of transportation progressed greatly in the UK. Turner made domestic trip and painted castles and ruins of the Middle Ages and undulating natural landscape. He was getting enough revenue by drawing picturesque landscapes and we are able to see a lot of pictures of this time. After this age, Turner spread his hand to oil from water painting and beyond the depiction of mere scenic landscapes, he began drawing the grandeur of nature. His theme, which Turner reached at more than 50 years old, was drawing with a foggy atmosphere and light, and also forms meeting all blended and melted by haze. His works full of light and bright colors are getting the highest valuation at present.
By the way, on January 18, I went to see the Pompidou museum exhibition in the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. National Gallery of Modern Art in the Pompidow Center in Paris, is one of the sites with the most important exhibitions in modern and contemporary art. 31 works and 25 artists were on display this time from that Pompidow collection. I could not relate to these works because they were too modern. Turner’s exhibition, compared to the other, was filled with friendly and fascinating works. We really enjoyed works of more than 100. It was like the difference between classical music and contemporary music, as if there was a sense of discomfort over such differences.
If you’ve also seen Turner, what do you think about Turner?.
ターナー展 : Turner's Exhibition
兵庫県立美術館Hyogo Pref. Museum : http://www.artm.pref.hyogo.jp/
神戸元町、別館牡丹園 Botanen restaurant : http://www.botanen.jp/
神戸元町南京街、栄和飯店、李昌明 : http://www.eiwahanten.com/
田中酒店、坂東隆 ; tanaka/tanaka.htm
北斎展 : http://ukiyoe.exhn.jp/
ターナー展
先日友人とターナー展を見に行った。友人の安福さんは会社を退職したあと横浜から姫路に移り住み、趣味の家庭菜園づくりで悠々自適の日々を楽しんでいる。彼は私の高校時代の親友で、以来50年交流は今も細く長く続いている。姫路に来てまだ2年で神戸を余り知らないが、丁度会った日が春節のお祭りの2日目の2月1日土曜日、元町駅で待ち合わせてすぐ中華街で食事してから画を見に行く事にした。お昼に食べた麺料理は安福さんも気に入ってくれたが、南京街は沢山の人で獅子舞の踊りの音はすれども見られない混雑ぶりで、やむを得ず元町中華街の知り合いの酒屋で中国酒を買ってからターナー展の神戸市立博物館へと向った。
展覧会はそう大した人出ではなかったが、ターナーの沢山の作品には圧倒された。
J・M・ウィリアム・ターナー（1775〜1851）は英国最高の風景画家で、その生涯を通じ自身の絵画表現を追求し続け、風景画の可能性と英国絵画の地位を飛躍的に高めた画家といわれている。ターナーの画家としての出発点は、英国各地の名所旧跡を描いた水彩画からで、18世紀以降の英国では交通の整備が進み裕福な人々の間で旅行が盛んになったが、ターナーも国内旅行に出かけては中世の城や廃墟、起伏に富んだ自然の景観など、絵になる風景を探し出しては描き十分な収入を得ていた。その頃の画も今回沢山見る事が出来、手の込んだ美しい風景画が沢山あったが、ターナーはその後水彩画から油彩画に手を広げて単なる風光明媚な風景の描写を超えて、自然の持つ壮大さを画くようになっていった。50歳を超えてターナーが辿り着いた最大のテーマは光や大気をカンヴァス上に描き出す事で、もやがかかった大気の中にかたちあるものが総て溶け込んでゆくような画風は晩年になるほど顕著になり、鮮やかな色彩と光で満ちた作品群はターナーの様々な画風の中で現在最も高い評価を得ている。所で私は1月18日に兵庫県立美術館で開催されているフランスのポンビドゥー美術館展を見に行った。フランス、パリのPompidow Centerにある国立近代美術館は近代、現代美術の世界で最も重要な拠点の一つだが、そこに収蔵されたコレクションを中心に25作家31点の作品が今回展示されているが、あまりにも現代的な作品で私はこれらにはなじめなかった。それに比べてターナー展はいかにも心洗われる優しい作品で、私たちは二人ともが大いにターナーの作品を楽しんだ。それはまるで現代音楽とクラッシク音楽との差、違い、のような違和感だった。
あなたもターナーは如何ですか。
