Monaco hangs Turner paintings in dialogue with modern art world stars

Glittering and shining like a disco ball, the artwork is covered with thousands of small mirrors, each of them depicting the image of a solar eclipse.

This room-filling work is in a dialogue with another work, painted around two centuries years earlier, by William Turner (1775-1851), one of England's most important and influential painters.

What does Katie Paterson's solar eclipse sphere have to do with 19th century moonlight paintings, you ask? One of the most significant exhibitions in the microstate of Monaco seeks to tease out the fascination in natural phenomena, shared by both artists.

It's only one of dozens of candid juxtapositions in this exhibition, created in collaboration with London's Tate Gallery.

Until September, the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco is displaying 80 Turner paintings, juxtaposed with works by mainly contemporary artists, including Olafur Eliasson, Wolfgang Tillmans and Richard Long.

The event hall hosting the exhibition covers some 70,000 square metres and is itself something of a tourist landmark for those visiting France's Mediterranean coast this summer.

With the contrasts of the show - called "Turner, le sublime héritage " ("Turner's sublime legacy") - curator Elizabeth Brooke says she sought to emphasize Turner's lasting significance, even 170 years after his death. The dialogue illustrates how topical Turner's exploration of beauty and landscapes is, says the art historian.

Among those present is Olafur Eliasson, an artist known for exploring natural phenomena. At the Grimaldi Forum, the Danish-Icelandic artist has 30 aerial photographs of glaciers in Iceland from 1997 and 2019 - spectacular to behold, but also terrifying to see melting. They become all the more powerful seen in contrast to Turner's Arctic Sea watercolours, painted over 200 years ago.

Meanwhile Richard Long, considered one of the UK's best-known figures in the medium of land art, works directly with natural materials and is known for his monumental works made from pieces of slate. Long and Turner travelled through the same mountainous landscapes in England in search of motifs.

From the seascapes of German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans to the abstraction of Mark Rothko, the show illustrates just how relevant, indeed modern, Turner remains. After all, one of the most important prizes for contemporary art still bears his name today. Fittingly, two artists at the exhibition - Tillmans and Long - have won The Turner Prize.