Irish artist Patrick Swift (1927-1983) moved to London in 1950, where he became associated with a group of writers and artists in Soho that included Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, George Barker and Patrick Kavanagh. While in London Swift founded ‘X magazine’ with the poet David Wright. In 1962 Swift left England for Portugal, where he founded the Porches Pottery. Although Swift produced a significant body of portrait and landscape paintings, his distrust of publicity and dislike of exhibitions meant he was little known in Ireland during his lifetime.