Separated by time, but united in their inspiration, Niall Naessens shows his work at this season’s annual display of the Turner Collection, reports David Lilburn
Affirming the view that the best readings of art are art, and that art is also art criticism, the National Gallery of Ireland, to complement the next annual display of the Henry Vaughan Bequest of works by Joseph Mallord William Turner in January 2018, has invited Irish master printmaker Niall Naessens to mount an exhibition. Showing no evidence of being overshadowed by his great exemplar, Naessens sets out to welcome and engage with his hero in his exhibition Good Morning Mr Turner. ‘My work for this show’ he writes ‘is an homage to Turner. As an artist who works in the realm of landscape imagery I constantly revisit Turner’s work and take note each time I do, he is the measure, the standard.’ A theme running through the show is that of conversation; conversations between two artists and between an artist and the landscape.
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