CECS Art historian co-curates major exhibition celebrating the life and legacy of John Flaxman
Posted on Friday 18 September 2026
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The exhibition showcases the creative life of York-born sculptor, designer and illustrator John Flaxman, alongside key works by William Blake, Angelica Kauffman, Jean-Auguste-
Co-curated by Dr Beatrice Bertram (Senior Curator, York Art Gallery) and Professor Richard Johns (CECS / History of Art), with research assistance from PhD candidate Michael Adam Smith (CECS / History of Art), Turner, Wedgwood & Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman is the first major exhibition dedicated to Flaxman in York. The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication, produced in collaboration with the University of York and Paul Holberton Publishing, with generous support from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Born in York on 6 July 1755, John Flaxman became one of the defining figures of eighteenth-century British art. His celebrated designs for the potter Josiah Wedgwood helped shape some of the most recognisable works of British ceramic art, while his published outline illustrations to Homer and Dante secured him an international reputation and inspired artists across Europe.
The exhibition includes Flaxman’s radically minimalist line drawings depicting scenes from Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Lent by the Royal Academy of Arts, the drawings will be displayed alongside JMW Turner’s celebrated oil painting Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus – Homer’s Odyssey, lent by the National Gallery and taking centre stage in the exhibition. The painting depicts Odysseus’s escape from the one-eyed giant Polyphemus.
Turner, Wedgwood & Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman opened at York Gallery on Friday 18 September 2026 and runs until Sunday 17 January 2027. For more information and to book tickets visit York Art Gallery’s website.