Enfilade

Wedgwood, The Apotheosis of Homer, 1777–80
(National Museums Liverpool, Lady Lever Art Gallery)

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Now on view at the York Art Gallery:

Turner, Wedgwood, and Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman

York Art Gallery, 18 September 2026 — 17 January 2027

Curated by Beatrice Bertram and Richard Johns

Marking 200 years since the death of York-born artist John Flaxman, this exhibition celebrates his life, work, and lasting influence on art and design.

Showcasing Flaxman’s remarkable skill as a draughtsman, sculptor, and designer, the exhibition explores his influence on fellow artists including J.M.W Turner, William Blake, and potter Josiah Wedgwood. Objects from York Art Gallery’s collection are displayed alongside key loans from UK institutions including the National Gallery, Royal Academy, V&A, and the Barber Institute of Fine Art, amongst others.

Flaxman is one of the York-born artists engraved into the façade of York Art Gallery, celebrating the incredible talent that emerged from the city. Following classic Grecian and Roman styles, Flaxman’s designs were used on the iconic Wedgwood pottery as well as inspiring drawings, paintings, stonework, buildings, sculpture, metalwork, chess pieces, funerary monuments, and more. Though not as well-known as Turner or Wedgwood have come to be, Flaxman had a significant influence on art that extends through to modern day from humble beginnings in the city.

Turner, Wedgwood, and Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman is curated by Beatrice Bertram, Senior Curator at York Art Gallery, and Richard Johns, Senior Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of York. The exhibition has been supported by and produced in partnership with the University of York’s History of Art Department and accompanied by an academic publication, this is the first major exhibition dedicated to Flaxman in York.

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From Paul Holberton Publishing with distribution by Yale UP:

Beatrice Bertram and Richard Johns, eds., Turner, Wedgwood, and Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2026), 128 pages, ISBN: 978-1917976220, £25 / €30 / $35.

This collection of thought-provoking new writing explores the far-reaching creative legacy of the sculptor, designer, and illustrator John Flaxman (1755–1826). Timed to coincide with the bicentenary of Flaxman’s death in 1826, it accompanies a major exhibition at York Art Gallery, developed in collaboration with the University of York.

Flaxman found his subjects in the epic myths of ancient Greece and on the streets of modern Rome, in the drama of a game of chess, and in the global events that unfolded in his lifetime. His work has, in turn, inspired generations of artists and makers. For the first time in more than 40 years, Turner, Wedgwood, and Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman explores the full range and impact of the artist’s work across different media. A collection of insightful essays and shorter ‘objects in focus’ by leading curators, artists, art historians, and literary critics introduce Flaxman for a new audience, as an artist whose work in ceramic, marble, silver and gold, and on paper continues to resonate.

Each author takes an object or concept from the exhibition as a starting point to bring new light to Flaxman’s legacy, including the creative dialogue between his art and the work of William Blake, William Etty, Henry Fuseli, Angelica Kauffman, J.M.W. Turner, and Josiah Wedgwood. The result is an ambitious reframing of the artist’s creative connections, with new perspectives on the collaborative nature of Flaxman’s enterprise, his identity as a disabled artist, the colonial reach of his monumental sculpture, the poetical legacies of Homer, Dante and Shakespeare, and more.

Turner, Wedgwood and Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman is edited by the exhibition co-curators, Beatrice Bertram and Richard Johns, with additional contributions by Pat Barker (Booker Prize winner and author of The Silence of the Girls), Kenneth Clark (University of York), Jason Edwards (University of York), Tony Heaton (sculptor and disability activist) and Martin Myrone (art historian), Catrin Jones (V&A Wedgwood Collection), Brigid von Preussen (Oxford University), Erica Sheen (University of York), and Michael Smith (University of York).