As a teenager on holiday in Crete with her family, Tacita Dean (b.1965) was told by a British artist living in the house opposite that she had ‘linear confidence’ (p.108). Dean’s drawing of a plant executed using a Rotring pen had caught the attention of John Craxton (1922–2009), and their following interactions affirmed her determination to become an artist. As Dean’s recollections might indicate, Craxton was an open and generous artist, which affords his art its immediate appeal, and which is evident in this retrospective at Pallant House Gallery.
