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GREAT ART JOURNEYS
Throughout history artists have travelled; for inspiration, to see the art of their foreign peers, to open up new markets or seek spiritual enlightenment. Sometimes they were just seeking escape, from personal trauma or from the constraints of the society they found themselves in.
Whatever their motives, in many cases their travels were so transformative that art history - and hence world culture – were profoundly reshaped.
With the help of historians, curators and art experts (as well as through some hands-on experimentation) award-winning artist and presenter Tai Shan Schierenberg retraces some of these journeys, seeking to illuminate their cultural impact and examining what they tell us about culture and society today.
EPISODE ONE: TO VENICE WITH TURNER
In this first episode Tai follows in the footsteps of the renowned British artist JMW Turner and his travels to Venice, one of the most iconic cities in the world, where his encounters with Italian art and the city of light profoundly altered his work, leading arguably to the creation of modern art as we know it.
Ever since his death in 1851, Turner’s later works have been the subject of controversy: Were these ground-breaking works of a genius or the incoherent scribblings of an old man?
Tai seeks answers to this question with the help of Turner expert Nicola Moorby in London, whilst in Venice he teams up with celebrated art historian and presenter Francesco da Mosto to explore the city with him and Turner’s experiences there.
