YORK Art Gallery is celebrating John Ruskin’s 200th birthday with a major new exhibition.
Ruskin, Turner & the Storm Cloud: Watercolours and Drawings displays the watercolours and drawings of two of the most celebrated artists of the 19th Century - Ruskin and JMW Turner - and considers Ruskin’s ‘eloquent critical relationship’ with Turner’s landscapes,’ said a spokeswoman.
“Through new research, it will reveal Ruskin’s response to Turner’s vision, together with his own experience of close looking at weather patterns, mountains and the built environment,” she said.
“For the first time, this exhibition brings together works from York Art Gallery and partner Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria, with substantial loans from national and regional collections and a commission by contemporary artist Emma Stibbon.
“In the summer of 2018 she retraced his steps, travelling to Chamonix to draw and photograph the glaciers around Mont Blanc.
“Through powerful, large-scale ink drawings, she reflects on the effects of climate change on Alpine landscapes treasured by Ruskin and Turner.”
As well as a dozen works by Turner and more than 40 by Ruskin, the exhibition will also include art by their contemporaries such as Constable, John Inchbold and Hubert Herkomer, she added.
Suzanne Fagence Cooper, research curator at the gallery, said Ruskin was rightly regarded as one of the most influential British writers on art and culture.
“His incisive lectures were controversial in his lifetime, and are still thought-provoking today,” she said.
“This exhibition will consider Ruskin’s questions about environmental change and personal well-being through his writings, his exquisite watercolours and those of Turner.”
She said the exhibition, which is staged in all three Madsen galleries and is included in the gallery admission price, runs until June 23.
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