John Craxton: Drawn to Light – At Meşher, Istanbul until 23 July 2023

A major exhibition entitled John Craxton: Drawn to Light can be seen at Mesher Istanbul until 23 July 2023. This is the first solo show for the artist in Turkey. The latest leg of the Craxton centenary tour is the largest yet thanks to the inclusion of 40 paintings and drawings from the Omer Koc collection, most of which are available for Istanbul only. Drawn to Light also includes the monumental Landscape with the Elements tapestry made in Edinburgh for the University of Stirling and

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Centenary show extended at Benaki Museum in Athens until 25 September 2022

Drawing a record audience at the Benaki Museum in Athens since its launch in April, John Craxton’s centenary exhibition has been extended until Sunday 25 September. See museum website for a programme of events in the closing week. Click here This very special retrospective survey then tours to the Municipal Art Gallery in Chania from 9 October until 31 January – and to Mesher Istanbul from 21 March to 21 July. Nearly 100 exhibits chart the entire Craxton career, and most especially his abiding love

Read More »

John Craxton: A Life of Gifts wins the Runciman Award

The biography John Craxton: A Life of Gifts, written by Ian Collins and published by Yale University Press, has won the 2022 Runciman Award. Professor Peter Frankopan, chairman of the judges, hailed a book that is “incredibly original, highly readable, beautifully researched and wonderfully written”. Ian Collins received the award from HRH Prince Michael of Kent at a well-attended ceremony hosted by the Anglo-Hellenic League in King’s College, London. In his acceptance speech, the author said that, given the close friendship between artist John Craxton

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Craxton pictures from the Britten-Pears Collection on view at the Aldeburgh Festival – Friday 3 to Sunday 26 June 2022

This year’s extended Aldeburgh Festival will include a tribute to John Craxton. All of the 13 Craxton paintings and drawings collected by singer Peter Pears, and normally hung in the Red House – the home he shared with composer Benjamin Britten – will be on view in the Concert Hall Gallery at Snape Maltings. Free entry. An essay on this very personal Suffolk collection has been written for the festival book by Ian Collins. Image: Two Greek Dancers (detail), 1951

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Craxton-Picasso, Holt Festival, Norfolk, Saturday 23 to Sunday 31 July 2022

This centenary exhibition will pair Craxton pictures with Picasso ceramics, many from the collection of the late Sir Richard and Lady Sheila Attenborough. The display will be augmented with often previously unseen works by mould-breaking artists in Craxton’s circle, including Lucian Freud, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Robert Colquhoun and Nikos Ghika. Free entry. Details of talks and other events will be announced soon. Image: Shepherd and Rocks, 1943. Lender: Britten Pears Arts

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The Photographs of Joan Leigh Fermor: Artist and Lover

The Photographs of Joan Leigh Fermor: Artist and Lover

The book, edited by Olivia Stewart and Ian Collins, is linked to a major exhibition of Joan Leigh Fermor’s photographs, at the Benaki Museum in Athens until 21 October. Elusive, enigmatic and beautiful, Joan Leigh Fermor (1912-2003) was a close friend of John Craxton and also one of the finest photographers of her time. Although hailed and hired by John Betjeman and Cyril Connolly from the 1930s, and a remarkable recorder of the London Blitz, she most excelled in pictures of unspoilt Greece taken between 1945

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Charmed Lives in Greece Exhibition at the British Museum

Charmed Lives in Greece Exhibition at the British Museum

This exhibition focuses on the friendship of the artists Niko Ghika and John Craxton, and the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor. Their shared love of Greece was fundamental to their work, as they embraced its sights, sounds, colours and people. Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (1906–1994), John Craxton (1922–2009) and Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915–2011) were significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Leigh Fermor is perhaps the most widely known of the three – largely through his travel writings – and Ghika and Craxton are now recognised as

Read More »
John Craxton Couple by the Sea Panorama Revisited 1950s

John Craxton in Greece: The Unseen Works. A launch exhibition with Osborne Samuel

The Craxton Estate now works with the leading London gallery of Osborne Samuel. Headed by Peter Osborne and Gordon Samuel, the gallery specialises in Modern British Painting and Sculpture and has a high reputation for the quality of its exhibitions and publications. Our launch exhibition John Craxton in Greece: The Unseen Works ran from 10 May to 8 June 2018 and was an enormous success. With daily crowds, the show was the most popular in the West End gallery’s history. While most of the featured

Read More »

John Craxton: Drawn to Light – At Meşher, Istanbul until 23 July 2023

A major exhibition entitled John Craxton: Drawn to Light can be seen at Mesher Istanbul until 23 July 2023. This is the first solo show for the artist in Turkey. The latest leg of the Craxton centenary tour is the largest yet thanks to the inclusion of 40 paintings and drawings from the Omer Koc collection, most of which are available for Istanbul only. Drawn to Light also includes the monumental Landscape with the Elements tapestry made in Edinburgh for the University of Stirling and

Read More »

Centenary show extended at Benaki Museum in Athens until 25 September 2022

Drawing a record audience at the Benaki Museum in Athens since its launch in April, John Craxton’s centenary exhibition has been extended until Sunday 25 September. See museum website for a programme of events in the closing week. Click here This very special retrospective survey then tours to the Municipal Art Gallery in Chania from 9 October until 31 January – and to Mesher Istanbul from 21 March to 21 July. Nearly 100 exhibits chart the entire Craxton career, and most especially his abiding love

Read More »

John Craxton: A Life of Gifts wins the Runciman Award

The biography John Craxton: A Life of Gifts, written by Ian Collins and published by Yale University Press, has won the 2022 Runciman Award. Professor Peter Frankopan, chairman of the judges, hailed a book that is “incredibly original, highly readable, beautifully researched and wonderfully written”. Ian Collins received the award from HRH Prince Michael of Kent at a well-attended ceremony hosted by the Anglo-Hellenic League in King’s College, London. In his acceptance speech, the author said that, given the close friendship between artist John Craxton

Read More »

Craxton pictures from the Britten-Pears Collection on view at the Aldeburgh Festival – Friday 3 to Sunday 26 June 2022

This year’s extended Aldeburgh Festival will include a tribute to John Craxton. All of the 13 Craxton paintings and drawings collected by singer Peter Pears, and normally hung in the Red House – the home he shared with composer Benjamin Britten – will be on view in the Concert Hall Gallery at Snape Maltings. Free entry. An essay on this very personal Suffolk collection has been written for the festival book by Ian Collins. Image: Two Greek Dancers (detail), 1951

Read More »

Craxton-Picasso, Holt Festival, Norfolk, Saturday 23 to Sunday 31 July 2022

This centenary exhibition will pair Craxton pictures with Picasso ceramics, many from the collection of the late Sir Richard and Lady Sheila Attenborough. The display will be augmented with often previously unseen works by mould-breaking artists in Craxton’s circle, including Lucian Freud, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Robert Colquhoun and Nikos Ghika. Free entry. Details of talks and other events will be announced soon. Image: Shepherd and Rocks, 1943. Lender: Britten Pears Arts

Read More »
The Photographs of Joan Leigh Fermor: Artist and Lover

The Photographs of Joan Leigh Fermor: Artist and Lover

The book, edited by Olivia Stewart and Ian Collins, is linked to a major exhibition of Joan Leigh Fermor’s photographs, at the Benaki Museum in Athens until 21 October. Elusive, enigmatic and beautiful, Joan Leigh Fermor (1912-2003) was a close friend of John Craxton and also one of the finest photographers of her time. Although hailed and hired by John Betjeman and Cyril Connolly from the 1930s, and a remarkable recorder of the London Blitz, she most excelled in pictures of unspoilt Greece taken between 1945

Read More »
Charmed Lives in Greece Exhibition at the British Museum

Charmed Lives in Greece Exhibition at the British Museum

This exhibition focuses on the friendship of the artists Niko Ghika and John Craxton, and the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor. Their shared love of Greece was fundamental to their work, as they embraced its sights, sounds, colours and people. Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (1906–1994), John Craxton (1922–2009) and Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915–2011) were significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Leigh Fermor is perhaps the most widely known of the three – largely through his travel writings – and Ghika and Craxton are now recognised as

Read More »
John Craxton Couple by the Sea Panorama Revisited 1950s

John Craxton in Greece: The Unseen Works. A launch exhibition with Osborne Samuel

The Craxton Estate now works with the leading London gallery of Osborne Samuel. Headed by Peter Osborne and Gordon Samuel, the gallery specialises in Modern British Painting and Sculpture and has a high reputation for the quality of its exhibitions and publications. Our launch exhibition John Craxton in Greece: The Unseen Works ran from 10 May to 8 June 2018 and was an enormous success. With daily crowds, the show was the most popular in the West End gallery’s history. While most of the featured

Read More »