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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-20 Daily Xml
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TURNER EXHIBITION

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:59): I rise to commend the Art Gallery of South Australia on Turner from the Tate: the Making of a Master, which is at the gallery until 19 May. Adelaide and Canberra are the only two Australian centres to receive this magnificent collection of J.M.W. Turner's work.

Turner's work is familiar to most art lovers through his most famous works, including Rain, Steam and Speed, The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons and Venice, the Bridge of Sighs. His enormous body of work continues to be held in high esteem and affection, representing as it does both the preoccupations of the England of the Industrial Revolution and the landscape tradition that Turner himself revolutionised with his experiments in painting light.

Just as an example of the continued resonance of Turner's work, one of his most famous paintings, The Fighting Temeraire, appears in the most recent 007 film Skyfall. Skyfall is the film that has grossed over $1 billion. It is a very well-received film that has probably taken more than, I think, most films. It gives a subtle juxtaposition of Turner's image with the characters and is well worth noting. Bond and the young Q meet in front of the painting, which shows the veteran of the Battle of Waterloo, now superseded, being towed off to the breaker's yard by a steam tug at sunset.

Moving away from the world of cinema spies, it is as a broad survey of Turner's work over his lifetime that this exhibition, comprising a number of oil paintings, sketchbooks, works on paper and watercolours, is of interest to all who visit it. It pays homage to the genius of Turner, who is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost landscapists of the 19th century.

Curiously, it also represents significant points of connection with Australia. Included in the exhibition is A Disaster at Sea. Its presence represents a real coup on the part of the Art Gallery because the painting was restored especially to travel to Adelaide. It depicts the foundering of a convict ship bound for the penal colony in New South Wales. There is also the presence in the show, and permanently at the gallery, of South Australia's own Turner masterpiece Scarborough Town and Castle: Morning: Boys Catching Crabs.

The generosity and trust of Tate Britain in consigning these precious pieces to Adelaide should be applauded. This consignment also says a lot about the calibre of our gallery and of the director and staff whose hard work and commitment have seen the project come to fruition.

A $2 million grant enabled the exhibition to be commissioned. The government's vision for cultural tourism should be congratulated. Already, well over 15,000 art lovers have attended the exhibition and I hope that, by its close on 19 May, visitor numbers will have broken all former records. I would like to congratulate the Art Gallery of South Australia and recommend this remarkable exhibition.

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