Exhibition explores the influence of Greece on the lives and work of three artists

The influence of modern Greece on the lives and work of three influential artists is explored in a new exhibition at the British Museum this spring. Charmed lives in Greece: Ghika, Craxton, Leigh Fermor (8 March – 15 July 2018) examines the enduring friendship between Greek painter Niko Ghika, British painter John Craxton, and British writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor. All three made homes in Greece, which are an integral part of the exhibition. The show brings together their artworks, photographs, letters and personal possessions in the UK for the first time. The three men met at the end of the Second World War, becoming lifelong friends and spending much of their subsequent lives in Greece. Their shared love of the Hellenic world was fundamental to their work, as they embraced the sights, sounds, colours and people of Greek life. Together they contributed to a golden age of Anglo-Greek artistic and literary collaboration.