John Christopherson

Art Brokerage: John Christopherson British Artist: b. 1921-1996. Born in Blackheath, London in 1921, Christopherson began his working life at Shell-Mex House in 1938, when Jack Beddington, the director of the publicity department, was pioneering the use of modern art in advertising. After a long wartime illness Christopherson worked at County Hall in London, choosing for his office wall a print of Paul Nash's Wood on The Downs; Nash's primeval landscapes and magical moons were later to have a lasting influence on Christopherson's own paintings. Christopherson was once described as a petit maitre, a modest accolade that pleased him, although he always craved greater recognition. He once wrote to me describing his fantasy self, "a poet and dreamer who in some miraculous way managed to claw his way to the summit of the art world". This was only half in jest: he often wrote of his frustration at what he perceived as his lack of recognition - he wanted to join his heroes in the artistic pantheon of 1950s greats. His 1975 painting Wall and Graffiti is a homage to his heroes, with the names of painters, jazz musicians, photographers and writers poignantly inscribed into the heavily worked and textured surface. Christopherson exhibited his work from 1961, showing often at the Leicester Galleries, the Marjorie Parr Gallery and Agnews. In 1989 he showed his predominantly abstract paintings and collages from the 1960s at England & Co, where he continued to exhibit regularly. His last exhibition was a retrospective in December 1995 at the Woodlands Art Gallery in Blackheath. In 1997 there will be a memorial exhibition at England & Co. John Christopherson was a painter of small dreamlike townscapes that combine an almost naive intensity with great sophistication. He was also a knowledgeable, modest collector and connoisseur of antiquities, tribal objects and post-war art. Listings wanted.