NEW works by an award-winning artist are on display at York Art Gallery, inspired by their existing collection.

Christopher Cook, who won the Sunny Art Prize in 2019, was commissioned to create artworks in response to a selection of paintings on display in the current exhibition Making a Masterpiece: Bouts and Beyond (1450 – 2020).

Cook works in liquid graphite, taking the meticulously painted, brightly coloured historical still life paintings as his inspiration for experimental black and white analogue works, infused with signs of contemporary restlessness and unease.

The results present the themes and hidden meanings of the earlier works – such as vanity, transient wealth and capitalism – which still resonate strongly today.

Dr Jeanne Nuechterlein from the University of York, an expert on early Netherlandish art and co-curator of the exhibition, said: “When the possibility arose of including Christopher Cook’s work in the exhibition, I could immediately envisage how his images would enhance the exhibition’s themes. What Cook’s images do is focus on the moral problems involved in the desire to accumulate and then protect wealth, problems he views as intertwined with the structures of capitalism. The urge to exclude or destroy any perceived threat to prosperity leads to defensiveness, social conflict, even military intervention. These themes are opened up in new conversations with the traditions of Dutch still life painting.”

The five new works are on display until the exhibition ends on Sunday, January 26 and it's included in the admission price to York Art Gallery.