Ruskin: Museum of the Near Future
Exhibition Leaflet: ‘Ruskin: Museum of the Near Future’
We all seek to make sense of the world, our perspectives shaped by different forms of knowledge, culture, values and beliefs.
John Ruskin (1819-1900) sought to encounter the world by close looking, examining the interplay between past, present and future. He conveyed his insights through a blend of images and words, cutting across science, religion, art, literature, economics and social sciences. He always connected knowledge to the intimacy of personal experience. This is what made Ruskin one of the greatest thinkers of all time.
John Ruskin, ‘Lecture Diagram’, n.d., 1996P0464 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
John Ruskin, ‘Peacock and Falcon Feathers’, 1873, 1996P0907 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
Ruskin’s motto was ‘Today’. He believed that the way we see things now will shape the way we think and behave in the future. His concerns about the dehumanising effects of technology, and impact of industrialisation on the health of the planet, speak powerfully to our own era.
John Ruskin, ‘Cloud perspective: rectilinear’, Library Edition VIII, Plate 54 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
John Ruskin, ‘Cloud perspective: curvilinear’, Library Edition VII, Plate 65 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University
‘Ruskin: The Museum of the Near Future’ explores the relevance of Ruskin’s thinking today. Inviting us to look closely, see clearly and imagine freely, his works take us into the nature of seeing and into the multidimensional nature of knowledge itself. Parables and places for imaginative encounters, they reflect our relationship, both modest and magnificent, to the world in which we live.