John Craxton, R.A. (b. 1922)

Self-imposed exile from Crete during the dictatorship of the Greek Colonels led Craxton to visit Morocco and Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, where he found the farmed volcanic landscape unimaginably strange and striking. He was inspired to make a number of works, sometimes - as in the present work - using black lava dust as an added pigment.

We are grateful to Ian Collins, currently working on a John Craxton monograph, for his help in compiling the catalogue entries for lots 4 and 5. Anyone with information or images for the book can contact the author c/o Christie's, 8 King Street, London, SW1Y 6QT.