London Art Fair, 2025: London

22 - 26 January 2025

Overview

The core of our presentation at the London Art Fair will revolve around the work of Patrick Procktor (1936-2003) – a central figure within the 1960s and 70s London art scene and in whom there has been a resurgence of interest. The social circle he inhabited is revealed in his friendships and subjects, including David Hockney, Ossie Clarke, R. B. Kitaj, Cecil Beaton, Derek Jarman and Mick Jagger among others.

Procktor was a gifted watercolourist – a medium he took up after being gifted a watercolour set by Hockney in 1967. Subtle and fluid, his watercolours evoke character and presence with a remarkable economy of line, space and colour - a formal approach which is also reflected in his etchings and aquatints, many of which depict his international travels in the 1970s and 80s.

The works come from the collection of the Late Richard Shepherd, CBE (1945-2022) - renowned chef who joined forces with Michael Caine and Peter Langan in 1977 to set up Langan’s Brasserie in Mayfair – at its peak the most fashionable destination in London. As Caine recalled, “After a few months of working with [Langan] I realised I needed a chef who was not only brilliant but also sober, which was how Richard Shepherd became the chef and third partner at Langan’s.”

Many artists at the time frequented Langan’s, including Freud, Bacon, Hockney and Procktor, who often exchanged artworks for food and which subsequently adorned Langan’s walls. Procktor and Hockney produced a series of Langan’s Brasserie related works, as well as designing celebrated menus. Some of these personal connections are reflected in the works we will be showing, which includes David Hockney’s lithograph Pretty Tulips dedicated to Peter Langan. The group as whole bring to the fore Procktor’s talent and place at the heart of the avant-garde in London’s swinging 60s and 70s.

“Procktor’s most enviable gift is, perhaps, the ability to tell the truth about small things - the fall of light, the angle of a head or hand. They give the best pictures the immediate quality of diary entries.’’ - Critic Peter Campbell, Patrick Procktor, The Listener, 18 May 1972