There is a beguiling exhibition at the British Museum, Charmed Lives in Greece, about Niko Ghika, John Craxton and Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Paddy L F I am quite up on but his friends I only know through his writing, letters and biography. Essentially the exhibition is Ghika’s and Craxton’s pictures interspersed with apt extracts from PLF’s somewhat slender literary output. May I digress? On Sunday I went to Bonhams to look at their Modern British and Irish Art sale. Gosh, do you remember those heady days when Christie’s and Sotheby’s went head-to-head with Irish Sales? The Guinness and champagne flowed and prices reached peaks never seen again. I went on Sunday to look at some of John Craxton’s work and regretted not leaving a bid or two. In the event nothing by him went for less than £5,000 which shows what an exhibition at the BM can do for your reputation.
The work at the BM is in a different class to the stuff at Bonhams – highly desirable but I’ve missed the Ghika/Craxton bandwagon. The Craxton craze began at the Fitzwilliam four years ago and now is under full sail. But how was his work received in his lifetime? (He died in 2009.) You may think you don’t know his pictures but you probably do as he illustrated the covers of all PLF’s books published by John Murray.
Here’s what PLF thought:
... a cropped dark head like a match-stick’s, narrow champagne-bottle shoulders, and arms like sausages ...
Artemis Cooper in her warts, crabs and all PLF biography writes, “he felt it should have been called Pony-trekking in Cumberland by Wendy Brown”. Here is one of Craxton’s better efforts that belongs to the Tate.
If you are going to the BM – exhibition ends 15th July – you will see this film.