LONDON.- Maurice Cockrill RA will showcase five decades of his works on paper. This exhibition will feature a range of imagery from Cockrill’s early figurative to more recent abstract studies. Mostly executed in ink and wash, these drawings illustrate the many different approaches Cockrill has applied to his work throughout his career. Works on Paper from Five Decades will demonstrate how his rigorous practice has resulted in a continually evolving body of work.

Cockrill says: When I began to draw at around the age of six, I could not have imagined that it was an activity that would preoccupy me for another seventy years. At that time I had a year off school recovering from cerebral meningitis and had little else to do except stand at the windowsill with pencil and paper, drawing.

The materials of the draughtsman are many and varied, as are the subjects and reasons for drawing. I have used drawing as preparation for painting and for its own sake. Marks on paper can be miraculous, my own and also the drawing of many other greater artists. Cézanne, Pollock, de Kooning, Gainsborough, Kollwitz, van Gogh, Miró, Watteau, Rembrandt – the list is endless and infinitely inspiring. At present I’m deeply interested in classical oriental calligraphy; a whole world of dancing, poignant line that is nourishing my interest in the act of drawing that still seems undiminished and unabated.

Maurice Cockrill was born in 1936 and studied at Wrexham School of Art and the University of Reading. He has taught at the Royal College of Art, Saint Martins College and more recently occupied the position of Keeper at the Royal Academy Schools. Cockrill’s work has been exhibited internationally; recent solo exhibitions include The Adam Gallery, London, Galerie Helmut Pabst, Frankfurt and Annandale Galleries,Sydney, Australia. His works are held in public and private collections including British Museum, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf and Centro Cultural Arte Contempraneo, Polanco, Mexico. He was elected Royal Academician in 1999 in the category of painter.

All works in the exhibition will be available for sale.