Roger Kohn
Encyclopedia
Roger Kohn is a designer and author. He studied with Rowan Gillespie
at York School of Art and is the Irish sculptor's biographer.
. After a year at York School of Art, he gained a first class honours degree in Graphic Design
at Chelsea School of Art along with among others, Edward Bell (artist)
. At Chelsea, Kohn was taught by Edward Wright, Dennis Bailey and Susan Einzig and became friends with part-time tutor, the Scottish surrealist poet and musician Ivor Cutler
. Cutler's influence on Kohn was a subtle one, but can be seen in his art. In the words of the artist himself:
Kohn travelled extensively in Latin America (once declining a request from MI6 to return to Argentina on their behalf). He worked initially with the Diagram Group, a London-based cooperative group of designers (which included the brilliant avant-garde composer and musician, Cornelius Cardew
), writers, artists and editors, led by Bruce Robertson and Bob Chapman, supplying visualised information to publishers in Britain and the United States; and was Art Editor on the definitive encyclopedia Musical Instruments of the World., which featured in Eduardo Paolozzi
's 1985 "Lost Magic Kingdoms" exhibition at the Museum of Mankind in London. After a brief spell at the Hamlyn Publishing Group he became Art Editor at Octopus Books. In 1983 he left to set up his own design business and to pursue his interest in art and photography, visiting over 60 countries and establishing an extensive photographic library. Besides Ivor Cutler
the influences on Kohn's writing and art are diverse:
But he cites the imagery of album sleeve designer Cal Schenkel
as perhaps his greatest visual influence.
Having exhibited along with Vanilla Beer
and Jane Jackson in the Art Attack exhibition at Cuts Gallery, Kensington, Kohn held his first one man show, "Hung, Drawn and Slaughtered" at the Zillah Bell Contemporary Art
Gallery, Thirsk in October 2003. Described by Pru Farrier in the Stockton and Darlington Times (2003) in the following terms:
.jpg)
Before undertaking the biography of Rowan Gillespie
, Kohn undertook several book/design projects. These included working with Sarah Mucha of the Mucha Foundation on the book Alphonse Mucha in 2005 (Kohn is style and design consultant for the family of the Czech belle epoch artist and designer); and work for the artist Vanilla Beer
daughter of Anthony Stafford Beer
, best known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics
. Kohn designed and produced Beer's Prenez, Mangez et Vivez (2006).
During the research period for Looking for Orion, Kohn worked closely with Moondance Productions on their Film Biography of Rowan Gillespie, Sculpting Life (Moondance Productions 2007). He travelled to various locations in Europe
and North America
, with Gillespie and Shane Brennan of Moondance Productions; conducted interviews and took many of the photographs that illustrate the biography. As well as researching Gillespie's background and artistic roots, the biography provides a catalogue of almost four decades of the sculptor's work and was launched in Ireland
, at the Royal Hibernian Academy
, to coincide with the Irish sculptor's unveiling of his latest work Proclamation, which depicts the execution of the seven signatories and the seven other leaders of the Easter Rising
, and now stands opposite Kilmainham Gaol
.
and designs and produces the publicity material for African Revival
a UK-based charity that provides Aid to 'self-sustaining projects' in Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. He is product designer for Fruity Faces, the Dragons' Den fruit case manufacturer that encourages healthy eating and gives its profits to charity. Kohn also designs the magazine showcasing the work of British Glass Artists in the UK, produced for the Contemporary Glass Society
, and originally founded by David Reekie
as British Artists in Glass. The Contemporary Glass Society is an
Arts Council funded organisation that supports and encourages the development of Glass art
in the United Kingdom.
In 2005, Kohn was among the many artists, including Sir Paul McCartney
, David Hockney
, Tracey Emin
, Edward Bell (artist)
and Damien Hirst
who produced a postcard (R. Kohn Volviendo a Casa, Art of Care 2005) selected by Bernard Williams of Christie's for the Art of Care Auction in Edinburgh.
Rowan Gillespie
Rowan Fergus Meredith Gillespie is an Irish bronze casting sculptor of international renown. Born in Dublin to Irish parents, Gillespie spent his formative years in Cyprus...
at York School of Art and is the Irish sculptor's biographer.
Education and career
Kohn was educated at Marton Hall Preparatory School and Pocklington SchoolPocklington School
Pocklington School, is an independent school in Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1514 by John Dolman. The school is situated in of land, on the outskirts of a small market town, from York and from Hull. It is an Anglican foundation and Friday morning church is...
. After a year at York School of Art, he gained a first class honours degree in Graphic Design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
at Chelsea School of Art along with among others, Edward Bell (artist)
Edward Bell (artist)
Edward Bell studied art at Brighton College of Art, graphic design at Chelsea School of Art and photography at the Royal College of Art. He worked as a freelance photographer and illustrator for Vogue, Tatler and Elle magazines. He was commissioned for portraits for album covers for David Bowie ...
. At Chelsea, Kohn was taught by Edward Wright, Dennis Bailey and Susan Einzig and became friends with part-time tutor, the Scottish surrealist poet and musician Ivor Cutler
Ivor Cutler
Ivor Cutler was a Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions recorded for John Peel's influential radio programme, and later for Andy Kershaw's programme...
. Cutler's influence on Kohn was a subtle one, but can be seen in his art. In the words of the artist himself:
In the early 1970s, when space travel and moon landings were very much in the news, Ivor was ahead of the time with his extraordinary eye for detail. He encouraged me to think small and push the boundaries of perception by exploring the minutiae of the minuscule, celebrating the precious details of our planet along the way.
Kohn travelled extensively in Latin America (once declining a request from MI6 to return to Argentina on their behalf). He worked initially with the Diagram Group, a London-based cooperative group of designers (which included the brilliant avant-garde composer and musician, Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew was an English experimental music composer, and founder of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated "people's liberation music".-Biography:Cardew was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire...
), writers, artists and editors, led by Bruce Robertson and Bob Chapman, supplying visualised information to publishers in Britain and the United States; and was Art Editor on the definitive encyclopedia Musical Instruments of the World., which featured in Eduardo Paolozzi
Eduardo Paolozzi
Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, KBE, RA , was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was a major figure in the international art sphere, while, working on his own interpretation and vision of the world. Paolozzi investigated how we can fit into the modern world to resemble our fragmented civilization...
's 1985 "Lost Magic Kingdoms" exhibition at the Museum of Mankind in London. After a brief spell at the Hamlyn Publishing Group he became Art Editor at Octopus Books. In 1983 he left to set up his own design business and to pursue his interest in art and photography, visiting over 60 countries and establishing an extensive photographic library. Besides Ivor Cutler
Ivor Cutler
Ivor Cutler was a Scottish poet, songwriter and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions recorded for John Peel's influential radio programme, and later for Andy Kershaw's programme...
the influences on Kohn's writing and art are diverse:
"Being a fan of the art of dadaist Marcel Duchamp, the drama of Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, the music of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart and the humour of Spike Milligan, I identified strongly with Ivor’s eccentricity and the absurdist nature of his unassuming yet often abrasive persona."
But he cites the imagery of album sleeve designer Cal Schenkel
Cal Schenkel
Cal Schenkel is an artist specialising in album cover design. He was the main visual collaborator for Frank Zappa and was responsible for the art and graphic design of many of Zappa's most well-known album covers. Schenkel's work is iconic and distinctive in style; a forerunner of punk art and...
as perhaps his greatest visual influence.
Having exhibited along with Vanilla Beer
Vanilla Beer
Vanilla Beer is a British artist.She trained at the West Surrey School of Art and Design and the Farnham and Walthamstow School of Art, London. Vanilla's first major solo show was at Gallery 181, curated by Alan Haydon in 1983. Her first major installation was commissioned by John Gill for the...
and Jane Jackson in the Art Attack exhibition at Cuts Gallery, Kensington, Kohn held his first one man show, "Hung, Drawn and Slaughtered" at the Zillah Bell Contemporary Art
Zillah Bell Contemporary Art
The Zillah Bell Art Gallery is an independent contemporary art gallery housed in a Grade II Listed Building in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, England. Since opening in 1988 it has more than doubled its wall space and is a venue for a variety of contemporary artists...
Gallery, Thirsk in October 2003. Described by Pru Farrier in the Stockton and Darlington Times (2003) in the following terms:
"A series of insect drawings which look like the sort of thing a Victorian collector would have framed - row upon row of luminously-coloured exotic bugs; look closer, and you discover they are all figments of fancy, the artist outdoing nature"
Looking for Orion
Rowan Gillespie
Rowan Fergus Meredith Gillespie is an Irish bronze casting sculptor of international renown. Born in Dublin to Irish parents, Gillespie spent his formative years in Cyprus...
, Kohn undertook several book/design projects. These included working with Sarah Mucha of the Mucha Foundation on the book Alphonse Mucha in 2005 (Kohn is style and design consultant for the family of the Czech belle epoch artist and designer); and work for the artist Vanilla Beer
Vanilla Beer
Vanilla Beer is a British artist.She trained at the West Surrey School of Art and Design and the Farnham and Walthamstow School of Art, London. Vanilla's first major solo show was at Gallery 181, curated by Alan Haydon in 1983. Her first major installation was commissioned by John Gill for the...
daughter of Anthony Stafford Beer
Anthony Stafford Beer
Anthony Stafford Beer was a British theorist, consultant and professor at the Manchester Business School. He is best known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics.- Biography :...
, best known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics
Cybernetics
Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
. Kohn designed and produced Beer's Prenez, Mangez et Vivez (2006).
During the research period for Looking for Orion, Kohn worked closely with Moondance Productions on their Film Biography of Rowan Gillespie, Sculpting Life (Moondance Productions 2007). He travelled to various locations in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, with Gillespie and Shane Brennan of Moondance Productions; conducted interviews and took many of the photographs that illustrate the biography. As well as researching Gillespie's background and artistic roots, the biography provides a catalogue of almost four decades of the sculptor's work and was launched in Ireland
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...
, at 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...
, to coincide with the Irish sculptor's unveiling of his latest work Proclamation, which depicts the execution of the seven signatories and the seven other leaders of the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
, and now stands opposite Kilmainham Gaol
Kilmainham Gaol
Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison, located in Kilmainham in Dublin, which is now a museum. It has been run since the mid-1980s by the Office of Public Works , an Irish Government agency...
.
Additional information
Amongst other work Kohn has undertaken filmography on Verónico CruzVerónico Cruz (film)
Verónico Cruz is a 1988 Argentine and British drama film. The motion picture is directed by Miguel Pereira, his first, and written by Pereira and Eduardo Leiva Muller. The movie was produced by Julio Lencina and Sasha Menocki and features Juan José Camero, Gonzalo Morales, among others...
and designs and produces the publicity material for African Revival
African Revival
African Revival is a UK charity which focuses on improving education in Sub-Saharan Africa. African Revival currently has active projects in Uganda and Zambia, and also provides funding for projects taking place in Sudan....
a UK-based charity that provides Aid to 'self-sustaining projects' in Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. He is product designer for Fruity Faces, the Dragons' Den fruit case manufacturer that encourages healthy eating and gives its profits to charity. Kohn also designs the magazine showcasing the work of British Glass Artists in the UK, produced for the Contemporary Glass Society
Contemporary Glass Society
The Contemporary Glass Society is an association of artists, collectors, students, writers, organisations, academics, galleries, manufacturers and enthusiasts of Glass...
, and originally founded by David Reekie
David Reekie
David Reekie is an eminent English Glass Sculptor who uses drawing and glass casting to express his unique vision of the human condition. His art can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, as well as in several other public collections in...
as British Artists in Glass. The Contemporary Glass Society is an
Arts Council funded organisation that supports and encourages the development of Glass art
Glass art
Studio glass or glass sculpture is the modern use of glass as an artistic medium to produce sculptures or three-dimensional artworks. Specific approaches include working glass at room temperature cold working, stained glass, working glass in a torch flame , glass beadmaking, glass casting, glass...
in the United Kingdom.
In 2005, Kohn was among the many artists, including Sir Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, David Hockney
David Hockney
David Hockney, CH, RA, is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, who is based in Bridlington, Yorkshire and Kensington, London....
, Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
, Edward Bell (artist)
Edward Bell (artist)
Edward Bell studied art at Brighton College of Art, graphic design at Chelsea School of Art and photography at the Royal College of Art. He worked as a freelance photographer and illustrator for Vogue, Tatler and Elle magazines. He was commissioned for portraits for album covers for David Bowie ...
and Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
who produced a postcard (R. Kohn Volviendo a Casa, Art of Care 2005) selected by Bernard Williams of Christie's for the Art of Care Auction in Edinburgh.