Art in Context | “Swimming with Turner”

J. M. W. Turner's seascapes demonstrate how his engagements with water—as subject, substance, and perhaps even collaborator—explore how humans coexist with one of the most alien features of our environment. From beaches to boats, mists to waterfalls, Steve Mentz argues that Turner presents water as a challenge to human ideas of order. The intersection of Turner and the “blue humanities,” which recently developed a critical language for relationships between human culture and water in all its forms, resonates for those of us who live near—and in Mentz’s case, swim in—Long Island Sound during an age of rising sea levels.