THEY were a band of friends who became Bradford’s most prominent art graduates.

Dubbed the ‘Bradford Mafia’ by poet and writer Edward Lucie-Smith in 1967, artists David Hockney, David Oxtoby, John Loker, Michael Vaughan and Norman Stevens studied together at the Bradford Regional College of Art in the 1950s.

All went on to make names for themselves in the art world and as part of Loker’s 80th birthday celebrations, a special exhibition at Cartwright Hall will show a range of work from his 60-year career as an abstract artist. At just 15-years-old, Loker won a scholarship to study commercial design at the college, laying the groundwork for the path his life was to follow. Loker’s intention was to train as a commercial sign-writer and begin working as soon as possible, but a young new, energetic and passionate teacher at the college, Derek Stafford, fuelled his interest in the history of art and a love of painting. Loker still sees him to this day.

“When I come back, I have very fond memories, it’s where it all started,” he said.

“One of the things I remember most is that kind of spirit of saying ‘right all the real art happens in London’ therefore, that’s where you’ve got to be, so maybe twice, three time a term, even though we had barely any money, we’d just go out to Leeds, start walking out towards the A1 and wait for the lorries and just hitchhike to London overnight.

“We’d get to London, sometimes we only had half a crown, and that was it. We’d hang about in London, see all the shows and then on the Saturday or Sunday night, we’d set off hitchhiking back.”

He added: “We all got ambitious to be artists and I think a lot of that was meeting Derek Stafford. He was only there for about two years, then he went back to London, he drank with us, he went to parties with us. I think he made us gel. I don’t quite know what would have happened otherwise.”

The exhibition will officially open on Sunday, with art critic, author, documentary filmmaker and television presenter, Ben Lewis in conversation with the artist.

A range of Loker’s work is also on display at the Flowers Gallery in London and a new book, penned by Ben Lewis, called Horizons, Zones and Outer Spaces: The Art of John Loker has been published to coincide with the exhibitions.

The Cartwright Hall exhibition ‘The Art of John Loker’ will run until January 13 next year. Admission is free.