PATRICK PROCKTOR and FRIENDS 1960s LONDON (33 images)

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Patrick Procktor and Friends 1970s London Uk.
I am delighted to have been asked to contribute to a Patrick Procktor show at the Arts University Bournemouth January 2016, curated by Ian Massey author, of Patrick Procktor Art and Life. These rarely seen photographs of PP and friends are from my first college project in 1968.
Patrick Procktor while working as a Russian interpreter with the British Council began to paint and draw in his spare time, and was accepted by the Slade School of Fine Art in 1958. There he was influenced by artists including William Coldstream and Keith Vaughan, developing a dark, figurative painting style.
In 1962 he became a professional artist and had his first show at the Redfern Gallery in London's Cork Street in 1963. It was a great commercial success that helped confirm his reputation. A year later, Procktor was featured in Bryan Robertson's New Generation exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, a show that also raised the profile of fellow artists David Hockney, Bridget Riley and John Hoyland.
Procktor's work, primarily in oils, acrylics and watercolour drew on pop art influences, but were also influenced by his travels (he visited Italy, Greece, India, China and Japan, among other places). He was also adept at printmaking, producing a sequence to illustrate a new 1976 edition of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In 1984 he was commissioned to paint a reredos for the St John the Baptist's Chapel in Chichester Cathedral.
Procktor lived in Manchester Street, Marylebone, central London (where many of these photographs were taken). Despite his homosexual leanings, in 1973 he married a widow, his neighbour and restaurateur Kirsten Benson. She sold her restaurant (Odin's) to Peter Langan, and Procktor, Hockney, Bacon and Lucien Freud all provided paintings to hang on the walls of Odin's and Langan's Brasserie in return for hospitality.
Procktor was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1996 and died seven years later, aged 67.
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