Is it coincidence or planning that there is a Greek-related theme to several exhibitions in London this spring?  After ‘The Classical Now’ at King’s College London, a stroll up Kingsway and along to the British Museum reveals another exhibition of modern artists who were influenced by Greece, Niko Ghika and John Craxton, along with the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, who developed a long term friendship and fell in love with Greece.  Their work was not so much influenced by the grand classical art and architecture of Greece, but by the small rambling towns and villages with their narrow alleys, rural landscapes, the brilliant light and colours and everyday sounds and the character of its people from resistance fighters in the Second World War to fishermen, sailors, shepherds and farmers.

The exhibition focuses on Hydra, Kardamyli, Crete and Corfu, the places where the friends lived and worked close to local people.   Craxton designed covers for Leigh Fermor’s travel books, the original artwork of which is included in the exhibition, as are photographs, letters and personal items such as Fermor’s typewriter, from the days before word processors.  There is a further exhibition of John Craxton’s work at the Osborne Samuel Gallery later this month, reinforcing the increasing recognition that his work, and the work of other post-war British artists, now achieves.