Framed in Friendship: A Legacy of Art in Sheffield at Graves Gallery

Framed in Friendship: A Legacy of Art in Sheffield at Graves Gallery, City Centre, 31 March–23 July 2022, free entry - Visit now

The sweetly titled new exhibition at Sheffield‘s Graves Gallery celebrates friendship – particularly one special connection that brought a fantastic piece of art by Stanley Spencer to the city. The husband-and-wife artist duo Stephen Bone and Mary Adshead, were great friends of George and Babbie Blomfield, who lived in Sheffield. This friendship led to Stanley Spencer’s remarkable Zacharias and Elizabeth being co-owned by the city.  Adshead sold the painting on the condition that it could be enjoyed by the people of Sheffield, home of her very dear friends and this is how it came to stay there.

Some of the highlights of the exhibition include work from Mary Adshead herself as well as Stanley Royle and Henry Tonks. Framed in Friendship: A Legacy of Art in Sheffield makes its debut alongside two major new collection redisplays as part of an ongoing programme of change and improvement, which includes work from Grayson Perry, Naum Gabo, Bridget Riley and Donald Rodney.