Last week, London museum Tate Britain opened its newest exhibit, Watercolor, which features 200 works that date from about 1750 through to present day.
The museum hopes to draw attention to a medium that was formerly associated with amateur artists by showcasing the likes of JMW Turner, Thomas Girtin, Tracey Emin and Anish Kapoor.
Unlike oil paint which is viscous and slow-drying, watercolor is accessible, clean, cheap and easy to use. Before the advent of photography, watercolor was primarily used for recording eyewitness accounts.
The exhibition showcases the wide range of contexts in which watercolors were employed including documentation of exotic flora and fauna on Captain Cook’s voyages, spontaneous on-the spot-recordings of landscapes by artists such as Turner and John Sell Cotman, and on the battlefield by war artists such as William Simpson and Paul Nash.
"These works were considered to be a branch of knowledge and scientific enquiry rather than an art form in its own right," said Alison Smith, exhibit curator. The exhibition runs until August 21, 2011.