EMMANUEL COOPER OBE
Born Pilsley, Derbyshire, 12th December 1938
Died London, 21st January 2012
EDUCATION
1958–1960 Dudley Training College
1960–1961 Bournemouth College of Art
1961–1962 Hornsey College of Art
1996 Ph D., Middlesex University
2003 Honorary degree, The Surrey Institute of Art and Design University College
2012 Honorary doctorate, Fine Arts, The University of Derby (posthumously awarded)
TRAINING
Gwyn Hanssen, London studio, 1963, La Borne, France, 1970
Bryan Newman, Dulwich studio, 1964
MAJOR ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2015 – Emmanuel Cooper - Connections & Contrasts, Leach Pottery, St Ives.
2015 – Cooper’s Legacy – Contemporary Ceramics, London
2013/14 – Emmanuel Cooper: A Retrospective. Ruthin Craft Centre [tour to Derby & London]
2011 – Beaux Arts Gallery, Bath
2008 – Beaux Arts Gallery, Bath
2005 – Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh
2005 – Crafts Study Centre, Farnham
2004 – Beaux Arts Gallery, Bath
2004 – Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University
2003 – Fine Art Society, London
2002 – Ruthin Craft Centre
2001 – White Gallery, Hove
2000 – Galerie L, Hamburg
2000 – Beaux Arts, Bath
1996 – Ruthin Craft Centre (and UK tour 1996–2003)
1995 – New Ceramics: Beaux Arts, Bath
1993 – New Ceramics: J K Hill, London
1992 – Sense of Space: Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
1990 – Stoke-on-Trent Museum and Art Gallery
1990 – Southampton Art Gallery
1990 – New Work: Contemporary Ceramics, London
1989 – New Work: Leigh Gallery, London
1987 – Pots: Craftsmen Potters Shop, London
1982 – Emmanuel Cooper: J K Hill, London
1979 – Emmanuel Cooper: Metropole Arts Centre, Folkestone, Kent
1978 – Emmanuel Cooper: Designers Guild, London
1978 – Emmanuel Cooper: Zomners Gallery, Heidelberg, Germany
1976 – Emmanuel Cooper: The Designers Guild, London
1973 – Ceramics: Sumas Gallery, Windsor
1972 – Emmanuel Cooper: British Crafts Centre, London
1969 – Emmanuel Cooper: Boadicia, London
1967 – Emmanuel Cooper: Gallery 369, Queen Mary College, London
SELECTED MIXED EXHIBITION
2020 – A Century of Connections, Leach Pottery, St Ives
2019 - The Eccles Collection, Contemporary Ceramics, London
2019 – Studio Ceramics, Ancient House Museum, Thetford.
2019 – Moving Forward: The Craft Studies Centre at 50. CSC, Farnham
2019 – 20th Century British Ceramics, Erskine Hall & Coe, London
2018 – Masters of British Studio Pottery, Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London.
2017 – Making Out 67-17, Showcase Gallery, Southampton
2011 – Spring Exhibition, Stour Gallery
2011 – Through Fifty, Contemporary Ceramics Centre, London
2010 – Ceramics for Christmas, Fine Art Society
2010 – Focus, Contemporary Applied Arts
2009 – 50 at the BDC, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool
2008 – The Vessel, The Object, Made in England, Switzerland
2008 – Cup, Contemporary Applied Arts
2007 – CPA at Fifty, The Gallery at Bevere
2006 – Ceramics for Christmas, Fine Art Society
2006 – Sotis Philippides, Paris
2004 – Fine Art Society
2004 – Contemporary Applied Arts
2004 – Blackwell House
2003 – Fine Art Society
2002 – Craftsmen Potters Exhibition, London
2002 – Porcelain, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool
2002 – Christmas Exhibition, Fine Art Society, London
2001 – FAS Now, Fine Art Society, London
2001 – Art of the Unexpected, Sotheby’s Fine Art, New York
2001 – SOFA Fine Crafts Fair, Chicago
2000 – Give and Take, Contemporary Art Society, The Economist, London
2000 – Inspired and Fired, Craft Potters, The Metropole Arts Centre, Folkstone
1999 – White Christmas, The City Gallery, Leicester
1999 – Art for Christmas, Fine Art Society, London
1999 – New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
1999 – Millennium Mug Exhibition, Galerie Besson, London
1999 – Current Context: New Ways of Seeing, National Museums of Scotland
1998 – Perspectives in Porcelain, The Devon Guild of Craftsmen
1998 – Summer Exhibition, The Gallery Upstairs, Henley-in-Harden
1997 – Glazed Ceramics, Contemporary Applied Arts
1997 – Christmas Exhibition, St James’s Gallery, Bath
1997 – Touching the Past, Contemporary Ceramics, London
1997 – Gainsborough House, Suffolk
1997 – St James’s Gallery, Bath
1997 – Beaux Arts Gallery, Bath
1996 – Coram Gallery, London
1995 – Oriel 31, Café Culture, Welshpool
1994 – Studio Ceramics Today, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
1994 – Pots for Food: Royal Exchange Crafts Centre, Manchester
1994 – High Table: Craftspace Touring: MAC, Worcester City Museum and UK tour
1993 – Boxes: Contemporary Ceramics, London
1993 – Of Porcelain & Silk: Rufford Crafts Centre, Newark
1991 – Summer Open Weekend: Balls Pond Studio, London
1990 – Contemporary Ceramics: Odette Gilbert Gallery, London
1990 – 10th Anniversary Collection: JK Hill, London
1990 – CPA IV: Mid Cornwall Galleries, Par
1989 – Southampton City Museum
1989 – Stoke on Trent Museum & Art Gallery
1987 – Craftsmen Potters Shop, London
1986 – Summer Exhibition: Leigh Gallery, London
1985 – Craft Council Shop at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
1985 – Beaux Arts, Bath
1983 – Studio Ceramics Today, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
1981 – Prescote Gallery, Oxfordshire
1974 – Six British Potters, USA
1974 – The Big Smoke: British Crafts Centre
1973 – Salix: Windsor
1970 – British Pavilion, Expo, Osaka, Japan
COMMISSIONS
1987 – Bird Bath, commissioned by Peter Brandt Associates
1985 – Vases, Haselbech Church, Northampton
MEMBERSHIPS
Crafts Council Index
Contemporary Applied Arts
Craft Potters Association (Fellow)
Red Rose Guild of Designer Craftsmen
Society of Designer Craftsmen (Fellow)
Council member, Craft Potters Association
Fellow Royal Society of Arts
NATIONAL COLLECTIONS
Crafts Council Collection
Victoria and Albert Museum
Royal Scottish Museum
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Pallant House Gallery,
Warwick University
Norwich Castle, Norfolk
Art Gallery and Museum, Stoke-on-Trent
Williamson Art Gallery, Wirral
Aberystwyth Art Centre
Portsmouth City Museum
Allen Galley, Alton
Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery
Cleveland Craft Centre
Centre for Ceramic Art, York Museum
Derby Museum and Art Gallery
Chatsworth House Collection
The Hepworth, Wakefield
INTERNATIONAL COLLECTIONS
Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA
Egner Collection, Cologne, Germany
Arkansas Art Centre, USA
National Museum of Ceramics and Decorative Arts "González Martí", Valencia, Spain
Sevres Museum, Paris, France
LECTURING
Senior lecturer (associate) – Middlesex University 1974–1997
Visiting lecturer
Camberwell School of Art, London Institute
Central/St Martins School of Art, London Institute
Goldsmiths’ College, London University
Visiting Professor, Royal College of Art, 2000–2011
EDITOR
Co–Editor and publisher of Ceramic Review 1970–1997
Editor Ceramic Review 1997–2010
Series Editor, The Complete Potter (BT Batsford) 1985–1995
AUTHOR: Art and Photography
Baron Von Gloeden: Photographer Monograph, (GMP, London) 1982
Interiors: Paintings by Cornelius McCarthy, (GMP, London), 1984
The Sexual Perspective: Homosexuality & Art in the Last 100 Years in the West, Routledge, 1986 [New Edition 1994]
The Life & Work of Henry Scott Tuke (GMP, London), 1987
Machinations: Photographs by Arthur Tress (GMP, London), 1989
Fully Exposed: The Male Nude in Photography: 1990 [New Edition 1995], Routledge, London.
People’s Art: Working Class Art from 1750 to the Present Day, (Mainstream), 1994
Male Bodies, (Prestel, London), 2007
AUTHOR: Ceramics
Handbook of Pottery (Longman) 1970
History of Pottery (Longman) 1972
Taking Up Pottery (Arthur Barker) 1972
New Ceramics (with Eileen Lewenstein) (Studio Vista) 1974
Pottery (MacDonald) 1976
Glazes for the Studio Potter (with Derek Royle) (B T Batsford) 1978
The Potter’s Book of Glaze Recipes (B.T. Batsford) 1980
Potters (with Eileen Lewenstein) 1972, 74, 75, 77, 80, 83, 86, 89 (Craft Potters Association)
Potters 1989, 92, 94, 97, 2000 (Craft Potters Association)
Ceramic Review Book of Glaze Recipes 1977, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1995
A History of World Pottery (B T Batsford) 1982
Electric Kiln Pottery (B T Batsford) 1982
Cooper’s Book of Glaze Recipes (B T Batsford) 1987
Art of the Potter: David Lloyd-Jones (York City Art Gallery) 1996
Ten Thousand Years of Pottery, (British Museum Press), London, 2000
Lucie Rie, (ed), (Ceramic Review Publishing), London, 2002
Bernard Leach, Life and Work (Yale University Press), 2003
David Leach, (Richard Dennis Publications), 2003
Walter Keeler, (Ruthin Craft Centre/City Art Gallery, Leicester), 2004
Magdalene Odundo, (Lund Humphries), 2004
The Potter’s Book of Glaze Recipes, (A & C Black), 2004
Janet Leach (Ceramic Review Publishing) 2006
The Ceramic Book, (Ceramic Review Publishing), London, 2006, 2008
Contemporary Ceramics, (Thames & Hudson) 2009
Michael Casson (Ruthin Craft Centre) 2010
Lucie Rie: Modernist Potter (Yale University Press) 2012
BOOK/CATALOGUE ESSAYS (selected)
‘Ash Glazes’, Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie: A Potter’s Life 1895–1985, Crafts Council, 1986
‘The Magic and the Mystery’: Sutton Taylor: Leeds City Art Gallery, 1988
‘Kate Malone’: Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 1989
‘A Potter’s Life’: Geoffrey Whiting: Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 1989
‘Bringing it all Back Home’, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 1992
‘Aspects of Place’: John Maltby: Rufford Craft Centre, 1992
‘Ruthanne Tudball’: Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 1992
‘On the Edge’, Craft Council, 1994
‘The Furniture of Home’: Angus Suttie: Contemporary Applied Arts, 1994
‘The Pleasure Principle’: Martin Hearne: Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 1994
‘Andrew McGarva’ Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 1994
‘Waste Not Want Not’, Recycling, Craftspace Touring, Craft Council Gallery, 1996
‘Frail Mortality’, Joel-Peter Witkin, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, 1995
‘Industry and Invention’, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper: Potters in Parallel, Catalogue Barbican Gallery, London/Book Herbert Press, London, 1997
‘One Touch of Nature: The Ceramics of Beverley Bell-Hughes’, Ruthin Craft Centre, 1997
‘Queer Spectacles’ – contributor to Outlooks: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities and Visual Cultures, Ed Peter Horne and Reina Lewis Routledge, London, 1997
‘Subject and Object: A Potter and His Life’, Ideas in the Making: Practice in Theory, ed Pamela Johnson, Crafts Council, 1998
‘Bennett Cooper’, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 1998
‘From Here to Eternity’, New Work by Sunil Gupta, Standpoint Gallery, London
Forward, ‘A Dialogue in Clay’, Artizana, Cheshire, 1999
‘Time, totem and taboo’, New Times July 1999
‘Camera as Conscience’, New Times, September, 1999
‘First Clay’: Document: Paul Astbury: 1999
‘Body and Soul’, David Binns: Ruthin Craft Centre, 2000
‘Art for High Art’s Sake?’ New Times, May 2000
‘Legends and Traditions: The Ceramics of Magdalene Odundo’, Blackwell House, Abbott Hall, Kendal, 2001
‘Tuning In’, Martin Smith: Tate St Ives, 2001
‘Sue Paraskeva’: Cleveland Craft Centre, 2001
‘Sensual Pleasures: Gordon Baldwin’, Barrett Marsden Gallery, London, 2001
‘Urban Rituals: Julian Stair’, Contemporary Applied Art, London, 2001
‘Mapping the Territory’, CC4, Contemporary Ceramics 4, 2002
‘Living Dangerously’, Nicholas Arroyave Portela, Leicester Art Gallery, 2002
‘Use and Beauty’ David & Margaret Frith: Ruthin Craft Centre, 2003
‘In Parallel’ Ashley Howard & Martin Lungley, 2004
‘Taking Risks’, Bowl: Rupert Spira, 2004
‘Caravan’: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott: Tate St Ives, 2004
‘London Days’: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott: National Gallery of Victoria, 2005
‘Anatomy of Structure’ Halima Cassell, 2005
‘Your own landscape’: Simon Carroll: Tate St Ives, 2005
‘Line, Form, Surface’: Susan Disley & Angela Verdon, 2006
‘Pot, Vessel, Object’: 50 Years of the CPA, Ceramic Review Publishing, 2007
‘The cats are jumping’ Urban Field, 2007
‘Kyra Cane’: Parallel Lines: Contemporary Applied Arts, 2008
‘Time Present, Time Past’: Felicity Aylieff, 2008
‘Nancy’s Pots’ Nancy Baldwin and Gordon Baldwin: Ruthin Craft Centre, 2008
‘Cracks and Crevices’: Ruth Duckworth: Ruthin Craft Centre, 2009
New National Biography
Entries on William State Murray, Janet Leach, Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie, Norah Braden, Michael Casson
JOURNALISM
Art critic Morning Star 1987–1992
Art critic Gay News 1980–1990
Art critic Tribune 1992–2011
Contributing art writing
Time Out 1991–1997
Gay Times 1992–2000
Art and Artists 1980–90
Contemporary Visual Art 1995–97
Creative Camera 1984–2000
Crafts magazine 1985–2000
Tate magazine, 2001–3
Ceramics Monthly, Crafts, Guardian, Studio Ceramics, Ceramic Review
BIBLIOGRAPHY
World of the Makers by Edward Lucie-Smith, 1975 (Paddington Press)
Studio Porcelain by Peter Lane 1980 (A&C Black)
British Studio Pottery by Oliver Watson 1990 (Phaidon)
Emmanuel Cooper: Ceramic Series: No 56: October 1992: Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
Emmanuel Cooper: Ruthin Craft Centre: 1996
The Ceramics Design Course: by Anthony Quinn 2007 (Thames & Hudson)
Breaking the Mould: New Approaches to Ceramics: Various: 2007 (Black Dog Publishing)
Emmanuel Cooper: Abundance: Beaux Arts/Ceramic Review: 2008
Significant Figures in Art & Craft Today by Derek Reay 2011 (MoTi)
Emmanuel Cooper OBE: Retrospective 1938-2012: Ruthin Craft Centre: 2013
An Absent Portrait: Emmanuel Cooper: Aileen Harvey: Canalside Editions: 2013
Emmanuel Cooper: Connections & Contrasts: Leach Pottery: 2015
Savoir & Faire: La terre edited by Hugues Jacquet: Actes Sud: 2016
The Tea Bowl: East and West by Bonnie Kemske: Bloomsbury: 2017
Making Emmanuel Cooper: edited by David Horbury: Unicorn Publishing: 2019
CURATION
Geoffrey Whiting, Aberystwyth Arts Centre/Crafts Study Centre, Bath, 1991
Bringing it all Back Home, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 1992
People’s Art: Working Class Art 1750 to the Present Day, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham and tour, 1994
The Sexual Perspective Jill George Gallery, London 1994
On the Edge: Art Meets Craft Kettles Yard Cambridge/Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Crafts Council Gallery, London and tour, 1995
David Lloyd-Jones Retrospective York City Art Gallery/Aberystwyth Arts Centre
[Un]limited Change and Development in international Contemporary Craft, Craft Council, 1999
40th Anniversary Exhibition – Ceramics – Bluecoat, Liverpool, 1999
Three Decades: Objects from the Crafts Council Collection 1972–1999, Crafts Council, London Institute and national tour, 2000
Bernard Leach/Mark Tobey, A creative relationship, Tate St Ives, 2001
Concept and Form, Pots, drawings, etchings, furniture, paintings and jewellery by Bernard Leach, Penlee House Gallery and Museum, Penzance, May 2002, and national tour until August 2003.
Table Manners: International Contemporary Tableware, Crafts Council Gallery, London and tour, 2007
CONFERENCES (selected)
‘Change and Development in international Contemporary Craft’, Craft Council, 1994
Critical Crafts 2 ‘Re-Inventing Craft’, Seminar Series Camden Arts Centre, 1998
‘Bernard Leach: The Early Years’, Crafts Council/Victoria and Albert Museum, 1998
‘Ends and Beginnings’, Camberwell College of Arts, London 2001
‘Ceramics in Context’, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 2001 (chair)
‘Pinning it Down’, Norwich School of Art, 2001
‘Form and Content: Aesthetics and Technology in Contemporary Ceramics’, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London University, 2002
‘From Material Things: art and artefact in the 21st century’, International Conference, British Museum, 2002
‘Pinning it Down: Crafts in a changing climate, Norwich School of Art and Design
BROADCASTING
Regular contributor BBC arts unit, Radio Four, Radio Three
Front Row, BBC Radio 4,
Nightwaves, BBC Radio 3
‘The Potter’s Wheel’, Radio 4
‘Masculinities’, Radio 3, 2001
ADVISOR
Grants and Loans Committee, Crafts Council, 1988–95
Special Projects Committee, Crafts Council, 1988–93
Ceramics Advisor, Aberystwyth Arts Centre 1988–1993
Member Visual Arts Panel, Arts Council of England 1998–2000
Contemporary Art Society, Special Collection Scheme (Stoke on Trent Art Gallery), 1999
MIMA Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
Craft Lives Advisory Committee
TRUSTEE
Arts Council of England – 2000–2002
Arts Council, England, London – 2002–2006
Craft Potters Charitable Trust – 1995–2012
Ceramic Review Publishing (Director), 1985–2010
Craft Potters Association (Council Member), 1980–2010
The Making (Museum of Modern Craft) 2002–2012
Farnham Pottery Trust (Patron)
ACADEMIC ASSESSOR
Middlesex University: 1971–97 MA and BA Internal Assessor
Croydon School of Art 1972–1975 Diploma: External Assessor
Glasgow School of Art 1984–1987 BA: External Assessor
Buckinghamshire College, Brunel University 1991–1996: BA External Assessor
Cardiff Institute of Higher Education 1996–2000 BA: External Assessor
Kent Institute of Art and Design, Rochester
Bath College of Higher Education 1998–2003 BA: External Assessor
ASSESSOR
London Arts Board 1990–1997
National Lottery Board 1996–1999
Visual Arts Panel, Arts Council of England 1998–2000
AWARDS
Gulbenkian Research Award 1993–5
Writers Guild Award 1997
Crafts Council Award 1997
Elected fellow of the Royal Society of Art 1998
Order of the British Empire, New Years Honours List, 2002, Citation ‘Potter. Services to Art’
Society of Designer Craftsmen – Silver Medal, 2002
International Ceramics Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, 2011
SELECTOR
Selector The Maker’s Eye Crafts Council 1982
Selector Studio Ceramics Today Victoria & Albert Museum 1983
Chair, Jerwood Applied Art Prize, Ceramics, selection panel, Crafts Council, 2001
OBITUARIES (selected from national press)
Gillian Lowndes (2010)
Ursula Mommens (2010)
Dan Arbeid (2010)
Simon Carroll (2009)
Ruth Duckworth (2009)
David Miller (2008)
Derek Davies (2008)
Robert Fournier (2008)
Susan Williams-Ellis (2008)
Hans Hedberg (2007)
William Marshall (2007)
Colin Pearson (2007)
Edward Hughes (2006)
David Leach (2005)
Eileen Lewenstein (2005)
Sidney Tustin (2005)
Derek Emms (2004)
Alan Barrett Danes (2004)
John Solly (2004)
Elizabeth Zuckerman (2004)
Helen Pinchcombe (2004)
Monica Young (2004)
Michael Casson (2003)
Waistel Cooper (2003)
Graham Burr (2003)
Peter Voulkos (2002)
Norah Braden (2001)
Walter Cole (1999)
Rollo Ballantyne (1999)
Patrick Sargent (1998)
Beatrice Wood (1998)
Janet Leach (1997)
Robert Washington (1997)
Siddig El Nigoumi (1996)
Lucie Rie (1995)
David Lloyd-Jones (1994)
Simon Pettet (1994)
Angus Suttie (1993)
Ian Godfrey (1992)
Michael Cardew (1983)
TELEVISION
Roughly Art, 30 minute documentary, commissioned by Carlton Television 1994
PUBLIC LECTURES 1997–2010 (selected)
Hayward Gallery, London – Robert Mapplethorpe, 1998
Barbican Art Gallery, London – Lucie Rie/Hans Coper, Harley Davidson Motor Bikes, 1998
National Portrait Gallery – BP Portrait Awards, 1997
Royal Academy – Picasso the Potter, 1998
Victoria and Albert Museum – Bernard Leach, 1998
Three Decades: Objects from the Crafts Council Collection 1972–1999, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, 2001
‘From Here to Eternity’, New Work by Sunil Gupta, Standpoint Gallery, London, 2000
‘An Inner Life’, Bernard Leach and Mark Tobey, Tate St Ives, 2001
‘Bernard Leach’, The Barlow Lecture, University of Sussex, 2002
Bernard Leach National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, 2003
Bernard Leach ‘Ways with Words’, Dartington, 2003