Animals occupied a central place in John Craxton’s Mediterranean world, reflecting his lifelong fascination with the Greek landscape, wildlife, and everyday life. Among them, cats held a particular significance. Independent, elegant, and observant, they became recurring companions in his paintings and prints, embodying the warmth, rhythm, and curiosity about the ordinary. This enduring theme is celebrated in Animal Encounters, on view at The Lightbox Gallery, from 11 July to 4 October 2026. Drawn from The Ingram Collection, the exhibition explores the many ways in which

Winston Churchill took to painting for solace during the First World War, and it sustained him for the rest of his long life, when he went on to beat Hitler in war and art. His exhibition at the Wallace Collection in London, until 29 November 2026, is a thrilling revelation. Churchill and John Craxton met in the summer of 1960, when the elderly statesman sailed to Crete on Aristotle Onassis’s yacht, and the painter gate-crashed the Chania welcoming party (aided by fellow cruise guest Margot

An exhibition entitled John Craxton: A Modern Odyssey is at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester until 21 April 2024 (open Tuesday to Sunday). The retrospective display comprises a core of works lately touring Greece and Turkey now augmented by major museum loans and further pictures from private collections never previously seen in public. Book tickets Alongside the Craxton survey there is a new diptych film by Tacita Dean, shot on Crete and put together in Berlin and Los Angeles. Crackers continues the artist’s passion for

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

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

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

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

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

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

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