'Procktor’s leather-and-drag subjects made him a natural choice when the Royal Court Theatre sought to commission a portrait of playwright Joe Orton, to be reproduced in the programme of a double-bill of his plays staged in June 1967.

The ensuing drawing is a knowing collusion between artist and sitter, the thirty-four-year-old playwright nude but for his socks. The tremulous delicacy of line captures Orton’s boyish physiognomy, relaying simultaneously his combination of intelligence and renegade sexuality. Orton had in common with Procktor a fascination for artifice and disguise, and in his turned-up jeans, t-shirt and donkey jacket (a kind of Brando-Genet out of Alan Sillitoe) passed himself off as a builder to gay pick-ups. This bona drag came in marked contrast to the repressed tailored suavity of the previous generation of Rattigan and Coward; and certainly in Procktor’s drawing Orton appears more post-coital bit-of-rough than celebrated playwright.

Deemed controversial in its day, the portrait gained in iconic status when Orton was murdered later that year.'

From Patrick Procktor: Art and Life by Ian Massey (Unicorn Press, 2010). Copyright Ian Massey/Unicorn Press. www.unicornpress.org
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Read a feature in the Evening Standard here

Patrick Procktor: Art and Life - A major retrospective of paintings, watercolours and prints at the Redfern Gallery, runs from Tuesday 13 April to Thursday 13 May 2010

For details visit the Redfern Gallery website www.redfern-gallery.com