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 in compelling ways. 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).