Saatchi Yates announces representation of late British painter Neil Stokoe.
Saatchi Yates has announced its representation of Neil Stokoe and debuted a solo exhibition of his works from the 1960s to the 1990s. This posthumous exhibition follows the gallery's successful summer group exhibition “Bathers,” which marked the first collaboration between Saatchi Yates and the artist’s estate. The gallery is now collaborating with Stokoe’s family to showcase his remarkable paintings to a broader audience through a retrospective show.
Stokoe had worked alongside contemporaries such as David Hockney and Frank Bowling during the “golden years” of the Royal College of Art in the early 1960s, and yet never saw the success of his peers during his lifetime. Despite the encouragement of his close friend Francis Bacon, Stokoe largely avoided the London art scene and worked in relative obscurity for his entire life. He exhibited his work for the first time after retiring in 2002 and maintained a reclusive lifestyle, dedicating himself to his art in his south west London studio.
This first solo exhibition since Stokoe’s passing in 2019 features 14 major paintings, some previously unseen, showcasing the evolution of his style over decades. His earlier works, often influenced by architect Richard Meier, depict psychologically charged interior spaces in a style reminiscent of the 1960s and ’70s. Later pieces from the 1980s and ’90s exhibit a more experimental approach, with fractured scenes and vivid colors reminiscent of Pop Art, as seen in Spiral Staircase with Two Figures (1983).
“Neil created a unique, individual body of figurative painting, which came out of the familiar Royal College of Art milieu but was cultivated in comparative darkness,” said Jack Stokoe, commenting on the rediscovery of his father’s work. “As a consequence, it is only now posthumously, that his work is beginning to receive the acknowledgement and acclaim it deserves.”
