‘The skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe.’ These words were spoken by perhaps Britain’s best-loved landscape painter, JMW Turner, and explain why, throughout his lifetime, he was a regular visitor to the seaside town of Margate. The artist produced more than 100 paintings of the town’s harbour, showcasing his unique skill for capturing the way that light bounces off the surface of water.
Turner Contemporary, designed by architect David Chipperfield, is a building that follows a similar logic. Located on the picturesque site of a long-demolished house where Turner once lodged and painted, this public art gallery consists of six blocks that could be mistaken for industrial boat sheds, if it weren’t for their bright and luminous surfaces.
Each volume features a gridded façade of translucent glass, turning the building into a huge canvas that reflects and refracts the ever-changing light and colours of the harbour throughout the day.
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As a gallery rather than a museum, Turner Contemporary doesn’t have a permanent collection (although it promises to always have some works by Turner on display). This led Chipperfield to design the exhibition spaces as if they were working studios, adaptable to artworks of various sizes and forms.
Taking advantage of the northerly aspect, he added mono-pitch roofs and north-facing clerestory windows that ensure these galleries are filled with diffused natural light, even on an overcast day. One journalist described them as ‘among the best rooms for art I have seen in the UK’.
The grandest of the exhibition spaces is the lobby gallery, which has as its backdrop a vast picture window looking out to sea. One memorable installation in 2011, the gallery’s opening year, saw Daniel Buren transform this glazing into a radiant op-art sunset. Its current exhibition brings the fluid paintings of Sophie von Hellermann together with colourful cutouts by Anne Ryan.
Since opening, Turner Contemporary has showcased the work of more than 500 artists, including Ai Weiwei and Grayson Perry. It has contributed more than £70m to the local economy, helping to turn Margate into a hotspot of creativity that continues to lure Londoners away from the city, and even features as a motif on the current £20 note. It’s a magnificent gift to the place Turner cherished the most. turnercontemporary.org
