Featuring new works by artist and archaeologist, Rose Ferraby, alongside pieces by celebrated artists including Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Norman Ackroyd and Julian Trevelyan, the exhibition entitled, Downland: Art and the Archaeological Imagination in Wiltshire traces the relationship between archaeology, landscape and imagination.
The geological heft of Wiltshire and its sculptural chalk hillsides, allow particular ways of seeing the varied archaeology in the landscape; from prehistory to the present day. Evidence of past lives can be seen etched into the chalk, whilst other remains are harder to see. Downland explores these visible and hidden narratives, viewed through the eye of an archaeologist.
“There’s something about the way these artists approach the archaeology of Wiltshire that captures material heft and the wonder we feel for them; a spirit of place that continues to draw us to this landscape and its monuments” explains Ferraby.
Running from the 4th of October 2025 – 20th of January 2026, the exhibition will feature screenprints, paintings and relief prints, juxtaposed with books, lithographs, prints, paintings, drawings and maps drawn from Wiltshire Museum’s own collection. Exploring themes around chalk earthworks, stone monuments, ancient artefacts and Wiltshire’s natural history, the exhibition flows between the work of other artists and archaeologists who have inspired Ferraby’s own work.
“For archaeologists, Wiltshire is very important. It’s a county whose sites inspired the thinking that helped create archaeology as a discipline. It is full of stories, not just of the deep past, but also of the archaeologists who have gone before us. The exhibition is a chance to dig into these narratives, and create work that celebrates archaeologists as well as the archaeology itself,” adds Ferraby.
Exhibition highlights include lithographs by Henry Moore (1898-1986), two prints of Stonehenge by Julian Trevelyan (1910-1988), including one that is little known, a dummy book designed by Eric Ravilious (1903-1942), a print and stained-glass window by John Piper (1903-1992), a print by Paul Nash (1889-1946), and etchings by Norman Ackroyd (1938-2024), to whom the exhibition is dedicated. Downland also features a painting by Thomas Guest (1754–1818), who emerged from almost complete obscurity nearly a century after his death when four of his paintings of grave goods unearthed at Winterslow, Wiltshire, were reproduced in an article published in the Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine in 1938.
The exhibition was sparked by Tim Schadla-Hall, who died in 2023. He taught archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology in London and inspired the uncovering of the art hidden in the archaeological archives of national collections.
