Viewing Light is Therefore Colour at Turner’s House

While giving a lecture at the Royal Academy in 1818, J.M.W Turner proclaimed that ‘light is therefore colour’ – reflecting his fundamental, core belief that colour and light are inextricably linked; something he showed endlessly in his paintings. The line was so striking that it became emblematic of ideas of the time – and it is now inscribed in our daily life, featured on the British £20 note.

At Turner’s House in Twickenham, artists Turner’s House Eileen Cooper RA and Sinta Tantra pick up on this famous conceit of Turner’s, by responding to the late artist’s home, previously known as Sandycombe Lodge – designed by Turner and completed in 1813 as a country retreat where he could create away from the bustle of the city, and intended as a home for his father.

In site specific installation of works – paintings, installations and interventions into the architecture. Together they reimagine what life was like for Turner there, and conjure new ways of relating to his ideas. “This house holds both light and memory—my work aims to create a conversation with its architecture, using abstraction and surface to reflect Turner’s spirit,” Tantra says.