Patrick Procktor

Masterfully adapting subject matter and techniques across mediums, Patrick Procktor was one of the most acclaimed British artists of his generation. Starting his career with dynamic abstractions of male nudes, Procktor’s pieces captured the physicality and dance-like performance of both the act of modeling and painting. He continued this theme across oil, acrylic, and watercolour paints in his time in the United Kingdom and the United States. The thin washes of paint during his period of acrylic and watercolour pieces would become a stylism for which he became known across his career. After the loss of Gervase Griffiths, both his lover and muse, Procktor’s focus switched from figures to landscapes as he travelled globally, experimenting with aquatint prints alongside his watercolour paintings. In the latter years of his life, he transitioned to still life painting after a number of hardships, finding acclaim in each genre he adopted. 

Born in Dublin, Patrick Procktor (1936-2003) primarily grew up in London and Brighton. Procktor graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1962, and the following year he held his first sell-out solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery, with which he would work closely with across his career. His works have been shown in numerous galleries around the world, most notably in Tate Britain (UK), Whitechapel Gallery (UK), the Museum of Modern Art (USA), The Redfern gallery (UK), and Palazzo Bentivoglio (Italy), among others. Since his passing, a renewed interest in Procktor’s paintings and prints have resulted in a number of his works being exhibited posthumously as a defining painter of his generation. Procktor died in 2003.