Creating the countryside:
Thomas Gainsborough to Today
18 March 2017 – 18 June 2017
This major exhibition examined our relationship with the countryside, bringing together Old Masters and contemporary artists whose work spans more than 350 years.
About the
exhibition
Creating the Countryside provoked reflection on the artistic, social and political forces that played an important role in forming successive generations’ perceptions of this ‘green and pleasant land’.
The rural idyll occupies a deeply rooted place in the nation’s psyche – Compton Verney’s ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped grounds are themselves an expression of this. Creating the Countryside explored how artists have shaped the vision of rural life and landscape, offering a new perspective on the countryside and its expression in contemporary art and society.
Works by artists including Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Lorrain, George Stubbs and Stanley Spencer were joined by pieces from contemporary artists such as Mat Collishaw, Anna Fox, Sigrid Holmwood and Grayson Perry presenting a broad spectrum of responses to, and interpretations of, this sceptred isle.
