Overview
- The hour-long Arena film premiered on BBC Two on November 19 and is streaming on BBC iPlayer in the U.K., with reports noting it is not currently available in the U.S., Canada or Australia.
- The programme films portions of Turner’s 37,000-item private archive for the first time, uncovering a substantial cache of explicit sexual drawings previously unseen by the public.
- Contributors include Chris Packham, Tracey Emin, Timothy Spall, Ronnie Wood and psychoanalyst Dr Orna Guralnik, alongside art historians and academics.
- Packham describes Turner's intense focus as possible evidence of neurodiversity and suggests his late work questions industrial progress and its effects on nature.
- Guralnik connects recurring imagery to grief over his institutionalised mother, while reviewers characterise the film as a compact psychological portrait with impressionistic animation.