A NEW collaborative exhibition, exploring how artists create iconic artworks, will be on show at York Art Gallery this month.

The exhibition, called ‘Making a Masterpiece: Bouts and Beyond (1450-2020)’, focuses on the imagination, science and skill behind the creation of iconic artwork.

Dr Beatrice Bertram, senior curator at the gallery, said: “Behind every artwork lies a process of planning and making.”

The displays feature loans from a wide range of national and regional collections, alongside works drawn from York Art Gallery’s own collection and new commissions by contemporary artist, Christopher Cook.

The exhibition takes its inspiration from an important late fifteenth-century painting by the Dieric Bouts workshop, Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin and Child, on loan from The Bowes Museum.

Beatrice said: “Drawing inspiration from this picture, York Art Gallery has brought together a range of works dating from the 15th to the 21st centuries to explore how artists think about image-making and how, in turn, they want us to think about their roles as creators.”

Extending across the gallery’s three temporary exhibition spaces, the displays will take the visitor on a journey through time, discovering the ways that artists design their artworks to affect viewers.

The exhibition has been conceived and co-curated by Dr Jeanne Nuechterlein from the University of York, an expert on early Netherlandish art and the current director of York Art History Collaborations.

She said: “I’m delighted that this exhibition offers the opportunity to get up close to so many wonderful artworks made in past centuries, and discover their relevance for art today.” The exhibition opened yesterday (Friday) and will be displayed in the gallery until January 26.