The prints featured in this intimate exhibition were donated to the Zanesville Museum of Art in 1980 by the Martin S. Ackerman Foundation. Founded in the mid 1970s by Martin Ackerman an attorney who specialized in tax law, the short-lived, private, niche foundation had a singular mission—connect art donors with museums unable yet eager to acquire contemporary art. For over ten years, until the foundation closed in the mid 1980s, it facilitated millions of dollars’ worth of fine art donations to hundreds of museums in the United States including the ZMA.

This exhibition features a series of twelve aquatints created by the noted British artist Patrick Procktor (1936-2003). A British watercolorist, painter, and printmaker who dazzled the London art scene during the 1960s, Procktor along with other post-war, New Generation artists including David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Patrick Caulfield, and Allen Jones, rejected conventional values and artistic traditions. Described as a dandy, a social genius, and a very productive and theatrical artist, Procktor created psychologically charged, deeply autobiographical portraits of rock stars, socialites, and artists that conveyed their story. This narrative element in his work made book illustration and his collaborative relationship with the printmaker Editions Alecto a rewarding outlet for the artist.

Founded in the late 1950s, Editions Alecto printed and published signed and numbered limited edition portfolios and books featuring prominent British and American artists including Patrick Procktor’s portfolio “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”