Jo Brocklehurst Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1935 - d. 2006

Jo Brocklehurst, died aged 70, was able to spend her life as a professional artist is an indication of both her profound talent and her unwillingness to compromise, the latter quality a frequent cause of frustration for her many friends. Her large and lively drawings of the European club scene of the 1980s chronicled the exuberant dress and manners of a latter-day demi-monde, and her iconic drawings of punks have entered the collection of the V&A.

Although she had worked as a fashion illustrator, she disliked the term "illustrator", preferring painter or draughtsperson. In the 1960s she sketched jazz musicians including George Melly, but her work from the 1970s and 80s is her best-known. She enjoyed meeting old friends at a recent Central St Martin's School of Art event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Sex Pistols' first gig, which took place there.

Her first one-woman show was in Amsterdam in 1979, but her major breakthrough came the following year when her work was shown in the ICA exhibition Women's Images of Men. Subsequent shows at Francis Kyle in London and Leo Castelli in New York sealed her reputation and more than one critic compared her to Egon Schiele. She travelled widely in the US and Europe, keeping a detailed sketchbook record of each trip, and made extended stays in Paris, Rome and New York, where she met Keith Haring. She would frequently draw in hot, dim clubs, capturing dance jockeys in Berlin and the exotic clientele of London's fetish clubs, which she visited with her friend Ted Polhemus.

Jo excelled at capturing the body in movement, and she recorded ballet and theatre in locations from Poland to Turin. For a series of daily newspaper drawings of the 1999 Berlin Theatre Festival she attended the performance in the evening then worked on her finished drawings, usually A1 in size, throughout the night ready for publication the next day.

Famously vague about both her age and background, she was born, and died, in Hampstead. During the war she was evacuated to her mother's extended family in Cheshire, and more recently spent time with a cousin on the south coast where she drew some uncharacteristic seascapes that literally sparkled, for they were sprinkled with glitter. As a girl she competed in athletics at national level and relatives say that, had she wished, Olympic level would have been within her grasp. She chose art, but retained her lithe athletic figure throughout her life and regularly rode her bicycle around the hilly Hampstead terrain.

She first entered St Martin's School of Art shortly before her 14th birthday, taking advantage of the experimental junior art scheme set up at that time. Having left the school at 18, she was a regular visitor to the costume life classes in the fashion department, where in recent years she was a visiting lecturer.

Tall and of exceptional beauty, her appearance was striking and she was able to carry off ensembles that were extreme even by the standards of St Martin's; one tutor recalls her coming to class in not one, but two, pairs of Wellington boots. However, it is part of the paradox that was Jo, known as Josie by her family, that having commanded universal attention by her arrival she would then seem shy and reticent, her eyes hidden by dark glasses, not infrequently worn in multiple pairs. While she may have deliberately shrouded her personal life in layers of obfuscation and mystery, her drawings were executed with a clarity that bordered on the forensic. In her drawing of the elderly ballet dancer, Antoinette, the almost insignificant blush of pink on the elbow tells us much about the condition of growing old. Her last major work was an installation, a deliberately ambiguous Victorian drawing-room, set up in her own studio.

She had recently returned from a long stay in New York and the work, which was ongoing and constantly changing, was in part autobiographical, a reflection on both Victorian England and her clubbing days. The walls were covered in vibrant pictures of characters from Alice through the Looking Glass, all with more than a hint of the fetish club. She was fascinated by Charles Dodgson's alternative persona as Lewis Carroll and called the work Brocklehurst through the Looking Glass. The almost strident drawings were in stark contrast to the dainty afternoon tea, complete with lace cloths and Victorian china, which this kind and private woman would serve to her friends.

This juxtaposition of the exquisite and the exuberant exemplified the life and work of a complex and talented artist. It is to be hoped that this final major piece might be seen by a wider public than the circle of friends who enjoyed it so much; she will be sorely missed by them and by her family.

Jackie Athram writes:

Jo was an original. She loved dancing, partying and socialising, but her true love was her work. She had great beauty and grace - about which she was amazingly, and thankfully, modest. She had many admirers and friends, though she was reserved. In time she lost her shyness and, while remaining a private person, she blossomed as her artistic ability developed and she created her own charmed world. As a friend she was loyal and caring. She could be as imperious as a warrior queen, passionate in argument, but there was a strain of vulnerability to her, and above all she had a tender, gentle and generous heart.

Jo lived the life of a romantic artist with the financial worries and the discipline of her work always coming first. Much of her work contrasted with her character: she was an observer, not a participant. Latterly she took to watercolours. Jo was unique and as near to genius as I (or anyone) could hope to come.

Jo (Josephine) Blanche Brocklehurst, artist, born August 6 1935; died January 29 2006