Fractured Light focuses on a key body of work by the British artist Johnnie Cooper, which was instrumental in his transformation from sculptor to painter. Throughout the 1990s, Cooper embarked on an industrious and experimental trajectory with paint and collage with a renewed dedication.
These works on paper, made by layering multiple strips of paintings, were directly inspired by a series of large assemblage works he constructed during the late 1980s, when the culmination of his work in art education brought a new found freedom. The view from a new studio in rural Worcestershire conjured fresh inspirations and instilled a fascination with the ever-changing colour, shape and light values that fractured through a nearby woodland. over the course of a day.
This book documents an important part of Cooper’s oeuvre and is a must for enthusiasts of Johnnie’s work or anyone who is into British Expressionism or abstract art. It accompanies a forthcoming exhibition, also called Fractured Light, scheduled for March 2020 at Kendrew Barn Gallery, St John’s College, Oxford University, and follows Johnnie Cooper: Sunset Strip, a major monograph on the artist in 2018, also published by Black Dog Press. AUTHOR: Johnnie Cooper was born in Wolverhampton, UK, in 1950. In 1970 he attended the sculpture course at Staffordshire College of Art, run by internationally renowned sculptor Stuart Osborne. After completing a postgraduate year at Staffordshire University in Fine Art Sculpture, Cooper was awarded a travel bursary and won a prestigious grant from the Gulbenkian Society to study in Florence. An intense period of formal experimentation ensued, leading Cooper to turn to painting in 1984. Over the past 40 years, Cooper has exhibited in various group shows throughout the UK, as well as at the Free Painters and Sculptors Society, Manchester Academy of Fine Art, the Mall Galleries and the Royal Academy. Cooper has also exhibited internationally in Dallas and Shanghai, and his work is held in numerous private collections. In 2019, Throe on Throe, a major retrospective charting Cooper’s work over five decades, was held at the Saatchi Gallery in London.
100 illustrations