Between Tumultuous And Placid Poem by gershon hepner

Between tumultuous and placid
my best work lies,
turbulent sometimes, but tacit
when I disguise
my feelings and attempt to find
a middle way
between the body and the mind
that they display.

Inspired by a review by Roberta Smith of paintings of J. M. W. Turner at the Metropolitan Museum (“Storm-Tossed Visionary of Light, ” NYT, July 4,2008) :
Turner’s best work lies somewhere in between tumultuous and placid. In “Peace — Burial at Sea” the sharp black silhouettes of the sails of a burning ship anchor the quavering depictions of sea, air, fire and smoke. In “Raby Castle, the Seat of the Earl of Darlington, ” from 1818, the velvety sweep of green hills provide the anchor. Above them an amazing raft of clouds surges upward; across them, a pack of fox hounds slide like a bit of wave on sand. In “Mortlake Terrace, the Seat of William Moffatt, Esq.; Summer’s Evening” the main action is the sun, sending its golden light shimmering across the Thames to give a row of trees long fingerlike shadows, while a spry little black dog (painted on paper stuck to the surface) barks at the passing boats. In the tiny watercolor “Shields, on the River Tyne, ” workers load coal from a ship into smaller boats by the yellow light of torches; the rest of the river, shrouded in blue and overseen by a silvery moon, seems to be another world altogether. Turner never lost his connection to reality. One of the last, semiabstract paintings in the show’s final gallery is a sunrise view of Norham Castle, which is the subject of a Claudian watercolor in the first gallery. Amid its gorgeous smudges of blue castle, yellow sun and pale ochre shores are two cows, faint but definite, who have come for their morning drink. This show may be wearying because there is something imperious and impersonal about the sheer force of Turner’s ambition. It is almost as if his drive to capture nature or history in motion was so intense that it didn’t leave room for anyone else, including the viewer. Maybe that’s why despite all his hard work and even the majesty of his vision, you can emerge from this exhibition impressed but oddly untouched, even chilled.


7/4/08