Barrie Cooke
Encyclopedia
Barrie Cooke is an Irish
abstract expressionist
painter.
He was born in Cheshire
, England, and spent part of his childhood in Bermuda
and Jamaica
before moving to the United States
as a teenager where he later studied Art History at Harvard University. He has lived and worked in Ireland since 1954. He moved to Ireland in 1954 and had his first solo exhibition in Dublin the following year. Though he has been based in Ireland ever since, he is widely traveled and his richly expressionist, semi-abstract paintings have been strongly influenced by time spent in such far-flung places as Lapland, New Zealand, Borneo and Malaya. Nature in its infinite variety and irresistible flux is his chosen environment and subject matter. He has also, however, painted a number of nudes, as refracted through what Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney has referred to as his 'aqueous vision'. He has collaborated with a number of prominent poets including Heaney and the British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, both of whom share his fascination with the elemental. Though primarily a painter he also produced a series of 'bone boxes' in perspex during the 1970s.
His painting often seem to express the soluble monumentality of the natural world, but he also made a series of perspex boxes containing real and artificial bones. He is a member of Aosdána
, the Royal Hibernian Academy
Gallagher Gallery in Dublin held a major retrospective of his work in 2003.
He has exhibited widely throughout Europe, the US and Canada. Major retrospectives include shows in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1986, the Haags Gemeentemuseum in 1992, and LAC, Perpignan, France in 1995. His work is represented in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Ulster Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Holland and in many other public and private collections worldwide. In 2003 a major retrospective exhibition will take place at the Royal Hibernian Academy Gallery in Dublin. Barrie Cooke is represented by the Kerlin Gallery, Dublin.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
abstract expressionist
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
painter.
He was born in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England, and spent part of his childhood in Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
and Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
before moving to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as a teenager where he later studied Art History at Harvard University. He has lived and worked in Ireland since 1954. He moved to Ireland in 1954 and had his first solo exhibition in Dublin the following year. Though he has been based in Ireland ever since, he is widely traveled and his richly expressionist, semi-abstract paintings have been strongly influenced by time spent in such far-flung places as Lapland, New Zealand, Borneo and Malaya. Nature in its infinite variety and irresistible flux is his chosen environment and subject matter. He has also, however, painted a number of nudes, as refracted through what Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney has referred to as his 'aqueous vision'. He has collaborated with a number of prominent poets including Heaney and the British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, both of whom share his fascination with the elemental. Though primarily a painter he also produced a series of 'bone boxes' in perspex during the 1970s.
His painting often seem to express the soluble monumentality of the natural world, but he also made a series of perspex boxes containing real and artificial bones. He is a member of Aosdána
Aosdána
Aosdána is an Irish association of Artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers and with support from the Arts Council of Ireland. Membership, which is by invitation from current members, is limited to 250 individuals; before 2005 it was limited to 200...
, the Royal Hibernian Academy
Royal Hibernian Academy
The Royal Hibernian Academy is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823.-History:The RHA was founded as the result of 30 Irish artists petitioning the government for a charter of incorporation...
Gallagher Gallery in Dublin held a major retrospective of his work in 2003.
He has exhibited widely throughout Europe, the US and Canada. Major retrospectives include shows in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1986, the Haags Gemeentemuseum in 1992, and LAC, Perpignan, France in 1995. His work is represented in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Ulster Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Holland and in many other public and private collections worldwide. In 2003 a major retrospective exhibition will take place at the Royal Hibernian Academy Gallery in Dublin. Barrie Cooke is represented by the Kerlin Gallery, Dublin.
Work in Collections
- Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
- The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
- Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery, Birmingham
- Dublin City UniversityDublin City UniversityDublin City University is a university situated between Glasnevin, Santry, Ballymun and Whitehall on the Northside of Dublin in Ireland...
: - Couple 2