Three Great Painters in Dialogue

The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart will present from February 2012 three pioneering painters of the last two centuries with masterful late works: William Turner (1775-1851), Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Cy Twombly (1928-2011). All three of these artists tested the boundaries of painting and radically challenged the traditional manner of artistic depiction. Well-considered juxtapositions will provide visitors with opportunities to contemplate each artist’s personal style as well as insights into the late phases of their careers. In his storm-blown seascapes, the English painter William Turner developed an abstract pictorial language which was then taken up by the Impressionists. The French painter Claude Monet realized the motifs in series of water lily paintings with differing light atmospheres. The works of the American painter Cy Twombly offer a perspective on Turner and Monet from the vantage point of contemporary art. A prominent exponent of Abstract Expressionism, the American developed the poetic pictorial language further in his mythological compositions.