A towering talent

Ian Massey is a writer, artist and lecturer and this is his first book. There have been two previous books on Procktor: a ghosted autobiography and a slim volume to celebrate his 60th birthday. About the second, one reviewer wrote that what was next required was ‘a full retrospective to answer the critical question that has been asked repeatedly over the last 30 years, “Is there anybody there?” ’ This handsome, copiously illustrated, well-researched and sensitive appraisal of the art and artist fully meets that requirement.

Massey did not know Procktor, but he shows there was much more to him than facility and a façade. Half the book is devoted to the post-1970 career and gives abundant evidence that some of the finest work dates from these so-called lost years. It is painful to read of the snubs he endured at the hands of the establishment. His anarchic temperament did not help, but he suffered unduly for not playing the game.