Watercolour, Tate Britain | reviews, news & interviews
Watercolour, Tate Britain
Watercolour, Tate Britain
An exhibition so eager to overturn preconceptions that it forgets itself
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
John Dunstall: 'A Pollard Oak near West Hampnett Place, Chichester', c 1660
Does watercolour painting suffer from an image problem? Do you think of the wild, vaporous seascapes of Turner, or Victorian ladies at their sketchbooks dabbing daintily at wishy-washy flower paintings? Do you associate the medium with radical innovation or with staid tradition? And would Jackson Pollock have appeared quite so heroic flinging thin washes of watercolour around instead of viscous oils?
Does watercolour painting suffer from an image problem? Do you think of the wild, vaporous seascapes of Turner, or Victorian ladies at their sketchbooks dabbing daintily at wishy-washy flower paintings? Do you associate the medium with radical innovation or with staid tradition? And would Jackson Pollock have appeared quite so heroic flinging thin washes of watercolour around instead of viscous oils?
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