John Craxton, Ian Collins Lecture and Monograph

Ian Collins gave a superb illustrated lecture about the artist John Craxton in Dorchester last night.

Ian's outstanding monograph, John Craxton (Lund Humphries), is essential reading for anyone interested in twentieth century British art and in Greece, where John Craxton spent many years of his life (he also had strong Dorset connections). Publication of the book was supported by (amongst other Trusts), the Rothschild Foundation. Can we hope for a Craxton retrospective exhibition in Corfu, Athens, Hydra and Crete at some point in the future? Rex Warner remarks, in Views of Attica (1950), that the British Council organised a John Craxton exhibition at the British Institute in Athens (as well as of Theophilus and Ghika) in the late 1940s.

Here's a review of the book, by Jim Burns.

Craxton was clearly a major artist. I had never before had the chance to see illustrations of so much of his work. Ian Collins' lecture and monograph provided ample evidence of Craxton's stature. How many people realise that he also designed the dust jackets for a number of books by Paddy Leigh Fermor?