Eileen Cooper A Preoccupation With Pictorial And Psychological Space

Eileen Cooper

A 60th Birthday celebration exhibition at Art First honours the artist Eileen Cooper who was elected a Royal Academician in 2001 then Keeper of the Royal Academy in 2011. Away from her duties as Keeper of the Royal Academy, Eileen Cooper continues to make ambitious and confident new work. This exhibition, which coincides with her 60th birthday, represents the output of the last two years and Art First is delighted to present an extensive body of work across both gallery spaces.
 
The title, ‘Edge to Edge’ expresses her preoccupation with pictorial and psychological space. Dynamic dance-related compositions, adopted for a new group of participants, develop Cooper’s exploration of the canvas’s edge to brilliant effect. The ‘groups’ of works which are the focus of the exhibition, sustain the overall sense of her intimate, poetic, sometimes playful but above all, universal world, for which she is known and celebrated.
 
Four large-scale canvases, including Honesty and Integrity and Heaven and Earth explore the possibilities of joint enterprise between their male and female protagonists. There appears to be a charade of co-operation or play-acting and perhaps a deeper sense of resolution in the most recent painting Spring Fever, where a joint dependency and equal significance  are monitored by the cunning fox and the newly-arrived birds.  Cooper is at her best when she allows both sensual romance and sexual experience to vie for dominance in her work.
 
Some of Cooper’s working methods are glimpsed in three sets of charcoal drawings. The first set pre-figures the large canvases such as Higher Ground while a second group, which has its own distinct presence, strangely sparse yet complete, relates directly to the series of new oil paintings like Red Gloves.
 
In addition to this outstanding display of recent work, we are pleased to announce a forthcoming publication Between the Lines; an extensive and fully illustrated monograph covering Eileen Cooper’s  career in paintings, drawings, prints and objects which will include contributions from Martin Gayford, Eileen Cooper herself and Sara Lee, her long-time printmaking collaborator. (Dates forthcoming.)
 
 
Eileen Cooper attended Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art, London, completing her studies in 1977. She has had regular solo shows in London since 1979 and has been included in many important curated group exhibitions worldwide. She has been represented by Art First since 1998 and was elected Royal Academician in 2001 then Keeper of the Royal Academy in 2011.
 

Photo: Top Eileen Cooper Gemini Oil on canvas, 137x168cm Bottom: Below left: Stretch Charcoal on paper, 76x56cm Below right: Talent Charcoal on paper, 76x56cm
Eileen Cooper
Eileen Cooper ‘Edge to Edge’ 10 September – 12 October 2013
Art First  Fitzrovia London     Visit Exhibition Here

Tags

,