Artefacts

AMONG the portraits in neo-romantic John Craxton's show at Christopher Hull's London gallery, a youthful image of Lucien Freud, painted in Greece in 1946, is testimony to the one-time friendship between Craxton and the 'greatest living British painter', currently celebrated at the Whitechapel in London. It is curious, though, that the chronology of Freud's Whitechapel catalogue should not contain any reference to that Greek trip. Craxton offers an explanation: 'He's re-written his past history in a very Stalinist way - with a lot of things left out. He's very self-obsessed.' Other apparent omissions include the fact that the two artists shared premises from 1942 to 1944 and that Freud's initial art education was undertaken at Goldsmiths in London at the suggestion of Graham Sutherland. Craxton's comment: 'He obviously hasn't got a very good memory.'

Art bibliophiles should head for the Hayward Gallery, London, this week where 50 years of exhibition catalogues are to be sold on 21, 22 and 23 October at prices ranging from pounds 1 to pounds 150. The earliest catalogue on offer is from 1942 and topics covered vary from Dutch 16th- century painting to Czech Cubism. Doors open at 10am.