Choreographing a Collection: The Bob Lockyer Bequest

Brimming with contrasts, this eclectic collection of recently bequeathed works included artists such as David Batchelor, Cornelia Parker, Howard Hodgkin, Callum Innes, Laura Knight, and the Singh Twins, and ceramics by Michael Cardew, Ewen Henderson and Alison Britton. It reflected Bob Lockyer’s passion for dance and visual art and his innate curiosity for art.

Lockyer was the former Director of Dance for BBC Television, where he worked for 40 years with celebrated choreographers such as Martha Graham, Kenneth MacMillan, Merce Cunningham, Frederick Ashton, Siobhan Davies and Wayne McGregor. In the 1960s he created a documentary on Serge Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes with his future partner, Sir John Drummond. Later, in the 1980s he created a series of avant-garde dance films called Dance for the Camera which attracted audiences of over 1.7 million and Painting with Light, where contemporary artists, Howard Hodgkin, Sidney Nolan and Richard Hamilton, used a Quantel Paintbox (an advanced computer programme) to create artworks.