FOR the first time in 25 years, every gallery space at York City Art Gallery will become part of a unique exhibition this autumn. Entitled 'It Must Be Abstract, It Must Change, It Must Give Pleasure', Fifty Years of Collecting Modern Art, the show juxtaposes historic with modern art, placing William Etty cheek-by-jowl with Roger Hilton and Gavin Turk; 18th century portraits with pieces by Ian Hamilton Finlay and Catherine Yass.

In all, 150 works by the likes of Joseph Beuys, Alan Davie, Terry Frost, Andreas Gursky, Callum Innes and the chairman of the Yorkshire Sheep Preservation Society, Damien Hirst, have been lent to the gallery by two prominent Yorkshire art collectors, Ronnie Duncan and Greville Worthington.

Ronnie says: "I collect art because I need to live with paintings and sculptures and keep up a dialogue with them.

"I have been collecting now for over 50 years and it still astonishes me how much doubt and anguish painters like Alan Davie and Roger Hilton caused me when I first encountered their work. That's because, as innovative artists, they had to teach me how to look afresh."

Greville, surely making a tongue-in-cheek bid for inclusion in Private Eye's Pseuds Corner, comments thus: "Art is about music, music is about poetry and poetry is about not having a driving licence. Collecting is the space between, distilled from the conversation."

You can join in with Greville's conversation or Ronnie's dialogue with art from September 22 to November 18, daily at York City Art Gallery from 10am to 5pm.