“Artist and adventurer John Craxton (1922-2009) said that life was more important than art – while pouring his intrepid, sociable existence into ravishing and exhilarating pictures. No one ever enjoyed living more than he did. One of the youthful hopes of British art longed to live abroad, and when finally escaping to Greece after the war he never looked back – celebrating the light, landscapes, heat, food and most of all the people of his adopted homeland in glittering colourist paintings which reworked Cubism and paid homage to both Greek mythology and Byzantine art. Ian Collins, Craxton’s friend and biographer, will talk about the artist’s productive life of pleasure to coincide with the British Museum’s Charmed Lives in Greece: Ghika, Craxton, Leigh Fermor exhibition and Osborne Samuel gallery’s show Unseen Craxtons.”

Thursday May, 10 at 6.00 pm

British Academy,

10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH

Please RSVP to Kate Smith