Colour in Turner

One cannot emphasise enough the impact J.M.W Turner had on Victor Pasmore who had a life-long, deep and unwavering reverence for his predecessor whom he considered to be the first of the modern artists. Turner revolutionised not only landscape painting but the whole naturalist tradition by being the first to utilise the discoveries of science relating to the decomposition of light into colour…Turner gave colour to light (Victor Pasmore published in The Listener, 1952). In Pasmore’s library bequest at the University there are four books on Turner as well as three issues of the Turner Society News (Pasmore was vice president of the society from its inception in 1975). One of these books is Colour in Turner, Poetry and Truth by John Gage, Studio Vista London, 1969 which Pasmore must have relished. It is with this book that art historian John Gage made his mark – a groundbreaking study on Turner, which brings together not only Gage’s own lifetime studies on the theories of colour as used in art, but also the poetic and intellectual aspects of Turner’s work. Pasmore’s copy is pencil-marked throughout. Inserted in the book is a leaflet advertising yet another book on Turner, though whether this also made it to his library eventually, we can only guess. Pasmore’s in-depth studies on Turner led him to deliver various lectures on the artist which in turn resulted in further experimentation with his own art – primarily the use of pure colour with no form of restriction – colour liberated from the boundaries of solid form (Pasmore’s letter to student Rebecca Sandover, 1989).

In 2018, Victor Pasmore’s children, John Henry Pasmore and Mary Ellen Nice, donated over 500 books and exhibition catalogues to the University of Malta, Archives and Rare Books Department.

The Victor Pasmore Gallery is open to visitors at APS House, 274 St Paul Street, Valletta.