Eileen Cooper RA: Collages

3 December 2010—16 March 2011

In the Sir Hugh Casson Room for Friends of the Royal Academy

In this exhibition, Eileen Cooper shows a previously unseen group of new works on paper. Best known for her vibrant and distinctive figurative paintings and prints, these unique collages represent something of a departure for Cooper; it is the first time she has exhibited works of this nature.

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These collages share an experimental quality, linking together Cooper’s experience as a painter and printmaker. Many of the themes explored throughout her career are represented and the playful imagery is steeped in narrative and mythological ideas. Less familiar is the juxtaposition of materials including paint, fragments of drawings, linocut prints and Japanese papers.

Cooper’s recent residency in Alayrac, southern France, has inspired the smaller works infusing them with warmth, colour and architecture evocative of the area. These deceptively simple compositions use recurring motifs including silhouetted figures, pottery, trees, fluttering doves, pillars and archways. The larger collages create a sense of drama in different ways. Some use a bolder palette familiar from Cooper’s paintings; others, intriguingly, have an uncharacteristic sparseness.

Eileen Cooper was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, and studied at Goldsmith’s College and the Royal College of Art. She is Head of Printmaking at the RA Schools. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1979 at the Air Gallery, London, and she has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally. Her work is held in numerous public collections in the UK. Cooper was elected as a Royal Academician in 2001 and is a regular contributor to the Summer Exhibition. In 2008 she was one of the Summer Exhibition Co-ordinators and in 2009 selected and hung the Print Room.

Open to the public daily 4–6pm, Fridays until 10pm. Admission free

• All works in the exhibition are for sale. Download a price list. (36 KB) Please call 020 7300 5932/5741 for more details (Mon–Fri 10am–5pm).
  

• Royal Academy of Arts