York Theatre Royal will display an artwork from York Art Gallery to coincide with run of Yasmina Reza's play Art.

From tomorrow until the closing night of November 11, John Monks's celebrated piece The Reflection can be viewed in the main auditorium before and after performances.

Painted in 1991, the picture was a gift of Dasha Shenkman, in memory of her mother Belle Shenkman, and was presented to York Art Gallery by the Contemporary Art Society in 2000. It shows a framed mirror, in front of which stands a green table with a cardboard box on it, and in the mirror's reflection, you can see windows and a chandelier.

"It's an interesting painting because the canvas is almost entirely taken up by a mirror," says Caroline Worthington, the gallery's curator of art. "As the viewer, you would expect to see yourself, or at least the artist in the reflection, but there's no one there. We're reminded that it is not a real mirror."

John Monks was born in Manchester in 1954 and his interiors and still life works are noted for their heavy application of impasto, a thick painting technique.