New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art features JMW Turner paintingsMay 16, 2016 - 16:32 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Four paintings by JMW Turner depicting 18th and 19th century commercial whaling and their possible link to "Moby Dick" are the focus of an exhibit on view at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Daily reports. "Turner's Whaling Pictures" features works done in the 1840s as the Briton Turner was near the end of his career and life. This is the first time all four have been shown together, with one owned by the Met and three on loan from London, said curator Alison Hokanson. Seascapes were a favorite of Turner, and in this case he addressed the legendary era of commercial whaling, in which sailing ships would spend years at sea, sometimes in remote places like the South Pacific, hunting down those mighty creatures to extract oil used in lamps. "It was one of the last of Turner's painting campaigns, a new subject," Hokanson said Monday as she presented the 1.2 meter by 90 cm (4 ft X 3 ft) paintings to the media. They will be on display through August 7. Two of the paintings depict the hunt itself, in which whalers in small boats hurled harpoons at the whale from a short distance. The other two address the carving up of whales to obtain oil, which was the industry's lifeblood. But all four scenes are presented in a sort of artistic haze: they are not neat, clean, picture-perfect representations. Rather, it's as if the brutal action of whaling, the weather and the enormity of the sea come together to blur one's view. "Critics were astonished by the dynamic, the colors," said Hokanson. People were even frustrated at times as they tried to discern exactly what was happening in these paintings, she said. Melville's inspiration? The commercial whaling era served as inspiration for other artists, such as Herman Melville, the author of "Moby Dick" -- the tale of Captain Ahab, obsessed with hunting down and killing a great white which on a previous voyage had bitten off his leg. The exhibit provides an opportunity to consider whether the Turner paintings influenced Melville, whose book was published in 1851, the year Turner died. "Aspects of Melville's novel are strikingly evocative of Turner's style," the Met says on its website. "Melville knew about Turner's paintings. It cannot be proven he saw them," Hokanson said. Melville visited London in 1849. At the exhibit, one wall features a Moby Dick passage that describes a large oil painting depicting a whale hunt very similar to one in a Turner painting. This suggests Melville did see the Turner works. It is true that both men drew inspiration from an illustrated book entitled "The Natural History of the Sperm Whale," published in 1839 by Thomas Beale, a whaling ship physician. The Met exhibit also includes related watercolors by Turner, whaling artefacts such as a harpoon and an oil lamp, a first edition "Moby Dick" and a copy of Beale's book. Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art Top stories Paris Center Pompidou Musée National d’Art Moderne will host the screening of Sergei Parajanov’s "Triptych" on December 15. The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. Partner news | Armenia to participate in key EU meeting for the first time ever National Assembly speaker Alen Simonyan has said that Armenia will for the first time participate in the Conference. U.S. reacts to Russia’s criticism of upcoming Armenia-EU-U.S. meeting Matthew Miller has weighed in on Russia’s criticism of an upcoming Armenia-EU-U.S. meeting. Lavrov sees ‘collapse’ of Russia’s ties with Armenia Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has underscored heightened tensions between Russia and Armenia. Russia clarifying reports on Baku’s alleged arms supply to Ukraine Russia says is carefully working to verify reports about alleged arms supplies from Azerbaijan to Ukraine |