Exhibition explores the relationship between the artist and their craft

Sheffield-based wood craftsman Henk Littlewood and visual artist Mir Jansen installing What you do; Where youre from; Who you know - a large wooden spherical sculpture lined with paintings referencing Ruskins ideas and thoughts at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield. Picture: Scott Merrylees.

FOR Victorian scholar John Ruskin, creative effort shaped the artist just as they shape the stone they sculpt or the fabric they weaved.

His belief that the act of making represented the perfect convergence of human spirit, skill and material has inspired a new exhibition at Sheffield’s Millennium Gallery.

In the Making - Ruskin, Creativity and Craftsmanship, will see four new commissions exhibited alongside work by Grayson Perry, Susan Collis, Tracey Emin, Edward Coley Burne-Jones, and even Ruskin.

Major loans include the 15th century The Virgin Adoring the Christ Child by Verrocchio, from the National Galleries Scotland, while Sheffield-based wood craftsman Henk Littlewood and visual artist Mir Jansen have created a shelter-like structure in the gallery, exploring Ruskin’s thoughts and contemporary reflections on his ideas.

Curator Alison Morton said: “Ruskin was fascinated by the relationship between the creativity of an artist, the skill they bring to their craft and the material they work with. In the Making explores this dynamic through the work of a broad range of historic and contemporary artists.”