"When a piece of land inclines toward the vertical our relationship towards it changes. We can no longer walk on it and it cannot grow food for us. So we either ignore it, or it becomes an aesthetic object in itself, akin to a work of art, or as a visible record of time and weather and geological change."
PAINTINGS
FURTHER INFORMATION
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JULIAN COOPER
Julian Cooper was born in 1947 in Grasmere, Cumbria. His father William Heaton Cooper (1903-1995) was a successful painter of the Lake District, as was his grandfather, Alfred Heaton Cooper (1863-1929), and his mother was the sculptor Ophelia Gordon Bell (1915-1975). His life has inevitably intersected with the wider currents of mountaineering and mountain painting.
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He studied at Lancaster School of Art (1964-65) and Goldsmiths’ College of Art (1965-69).
Awarded the Boise Travelling Scholarship (1969), he travelled in Europe and was resident at the British School in Rome (1969-70). He returned to the Lake District in 1975 and has developed an international reputation as one of the most imaginative and thought-provoking mountain painters of his generation. He now lives and works in Cockermouth.
Cooper has spent his working life looking for places that carry a particular charge for him and has found them in some of the most barren and inhospitable places on the planet: Amazonia, Andes, Himalayas, Tibet, Tasmania and Carrara.
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His influences at art school were mostly post-painterly abstraction and colour field painting, later becoming interested in the Abstract Expressionists, seeking to negotiate a way through the representation-abstraction dichotomy; and to combine the surface-image relationship he found in the work of Clifford Still and Mark Rothko whilst retaining the vitality of a representational image.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s his work has ranged from narrative paintings based on Malcom Lowry’s novel “Under the Volcano”, to paintings based on Wim Wenders’ film ‘Paris Texas’, and to a series of paintings about the events surrounding the assassination of the union leader and environmentalist Chico Mendes in Amazonia in 1989.
He then went on to find new subjects among mountains, working in the Alps, the Cordillera Blanca in the Peruvian Andes, Kanchenjunga in Nepal, and Mount Kailas in Tibet.
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He currently finds new potential within a twenty mile radius of his home in the northern fells of the Lake District, becoming increasingly fascinated with the visible interplay of nature and culture - the working landscape past and present - acted out in plain sight on the land.
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The uplands have become a contested landscape, and there are philosophical, economic and political questions that challenge our notions of this much written about and painted region, and of who has primacy there.
AWARDS
1969-70 Boise Travelling Scholarship
1982 Northern Arts Bursary
2012 Honorary Fellowship, University of Cumbria
2019 Cumbria Culture Award
RESIDENCIES
1976 The Karoli Foundation, France
1981 Virginia Centre for Creative Arts, USA
2011 Landscape Art Research, Queenstown, Tasmania
PUBLIC & CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Aber Diamond Corporation. Toronto; Arts Council of Great Britain; Abbot Hall Art Gallery; Allerdale District Council; Baker & McKenzie, London; Bankers Trust; Bolton Art Gallery; Brathay Hall Trust; Cumbria County Council; Davy Offshore Modules; Durham County Council; Durham University; Ferguson Industrial Holdings; Home Office; Inner London Education Authority; Kendal Magistrates Court; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; Lancaster University; Messner Museum, Bolzano. Italy; Museo della Montagna, Turin, Italy; Mountain Heritage Trust; Northern Arts; Pentagram; Reuters; Theatre on the Lake, Keswick; Tullie House Art Gallery, Carlisle; Unilever; University College, London.
2020
AMONG MOUNTAINS
Archive Gallery
Grasmere
2017
Full Circle Archive Gallery
Heaton Cooper Studio
Grasmere
JULIAN COOPER, PAINTINGS FROM 1970 TO 2017
Abbot Hall Art Gallery
Kendal
2014
Reading the Rock
Crossley Gallery, Dean Clough Mills
Halifax
Julian Cooper's 10 Golden Age Paintings
The Alpine Club
London
ONE TO ONE
Blue Gallery
Brantwood
2005
PARETI, GHIACCI, PRECIPI
Museo della Montagna, Turin
Italy
2004
Kanchenjunga and Eiger
The Alpine Club
London
kanchenjunga
Brewery Arts Centre
Kendal
mind has mountains
3 Degrees West Gallery, Wordsworth Trust
Grasmere
1998
Figure and Ground
Art Space Gallery
London
1997
Ambleside Mountain Festival
Ambleside
1996
The Mountain Looks at You
Tullie House Museum
Carlisle
Hartlepool Art Gallery
Hartlepool
1995
Lawrence Batley Gallery, Bretton Hall
Yorkshire
1994
Stanley Corridor Gallery, Leeds General Infirmary
Leeds
1994
Oddfellows Gallery
Kendal
1990
International Mountain Literature Festival
Bretton Hall
Yorkshire
1984
Two Man Show (with Terence Clarke)
Paton Gallery
London
1983
Summer Show two
Serpentine Gallery
London
1978
J.P.L Fine Art
London
1974
Summer Show One
Serpentine Gallery
London
1974
Laing Art Gallery
Newcastle upon Tyne
1973
Trevelyan College, Durham University
Durham
1972
Greenwich Theatre Gallery
London
1971
Zella Nine Gallery
London
2023
LANDSCAPE OF THE GODS
Cross Lane Projects, Kendal
Cumbria
2019
ROMANTICS
St Barbe Museum, Lymington
Hampshire
MINISCULE
Cross Lane Projects, Kendal
Cumbria
UNPICTURESQUE
Archive Gallery
Grasmere
THIS LAND IS OUR LAND
Wordsworth House, Cockermouth
Cumbria
2012
HEATON COOPER, 1863 TO 2012 - A FAMILY OF ARTISTS
Rheged Gallery
Cumbria
Fire and Ice
Art Space Gallery
London
Ways with Words
Theatre by the Lake
Keswick
2011
Flashback
Art Space Gallery
London
2009
Under the Volcano
The Bluecoat Gallery
Liverpool
2008
Winter Journey
Art Space Gallery
London
2006
Art at the Rockface
Norwich Castle Museum
Norwich
Art at the Rockface
Millenium Gallery
Sheffield
2005
A Picture of Britain
Tate Britain
London
2002
Cooper x Five
Cooperhus, Norsk Reiselivmuseum
Norway
kanchenjunga
Brewery Arts Centre
Kendal
1999
Climbing Art
Brewery Arts Cenre
Kendal
Contemporary British Landscape Painting
Flowers East
London
Mountain
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Wolverhampton
1998
Winter Journey
Art Space Gallery
London
1997
Sublime Inspiration, the Art of Mountains from Turner to Hillary
Abbot Hall Art Gallery
Kendal
1994-92
Carlisle Open Exhibition
Tullie House Museum
Carlisle
1990-88
Clean Irish Sea
City Centre Gallery
Dublin & touring
1990-91
Artists in National Parks
Victoria & Albert Museum & touring
Britain & USA
1989-87
The Day Book
Smith’s Gallery
London & touring
1988
From Icarus to Ariadne
Paton Gallery
London
1987-86
Recent Aquisitions
Arts Council
Touring Exhibition
1987-89
Introducing with Pleasure
Arts Council
Touring Exhibition
1987-67
London Group
London
1986
Group Show
Paton Gallery
London
1985
GROUP SHOW
Paton Gallery
London
1982
Northern Open
Sunderland Arts Centre
Sunderland
1979
Three Generations
Abbot Hall Art Gallery
Kendal
1978
Northern Art Open
Shipley Art Gallery
Gateshead
1977
Twelve British Painters
British Council Exhibition, Reykjavik
Iceland
1976
The Deck of Cards
JPL Fine Art
London
1975
20th Century British Drawings
JPL Fine Art
London
1972
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Royal Academy
London
2023
LONDON’S SOUTH BANK
A HISTORY
Mireille Galinou
Your London Publishing
2021
KANCHENJUNGA, THE HIMALAYAN GIANT
Doug Scott
Vertebrate
INVISIBLE WALLS
Hella Pick
Weidenfeld & Nicholson
2020
MOUNTAINEERING AND BRITISH ROMANTICISM 1770-1836
The Literary Cultures of Climbing
Simon Bainbridge
Oxford University Press
2019
PRIVATE VIEW
Julian Cooper
Scottish Art News
2018
THE LAKES WITH PAUL ROSE
BBC 1 television, series one
London
2017
THE YORKSHIRE DALES AND THE LAKES
Channel Four television
London
The Magician's Glass: Character and Fate: Eight Essays on Climbing & Mountain Life
Ed Douglas
Vertebrate
Abbot Hall catalogue essay, Julian Cooper paintings from 1970 to 2017
Andrew Lambirth & Amy Concannon
Cumbria
2016
The Matter of the North (2nd September)
BBC Radio Four
London
The Marches
Rory Stewart
Jonathan Cape
2015
Between the Sunset and the Sea
Simon Ingram
Collins
2014
catalogue essay - Natural Forces
Melvyn Bragg
London
Natural Forces
John Spurling, Julian Cooper
The Spectator 29th March
One to One
Howard Hull talks to Julian Cooper 'the evolution of a single work'
2012
catalogue essay - A Fractured Landscape
Andrew Lambirth
2010
catalogue essay, Breaking Ground
Eric Scigliano
Country Life
Huon Mallalieu
2009
CAtalogue essay - Motherlode
Melvyn Bragg, Howard Hull, Grevel Lindop
2008
Kailas, A Painting Khora
Julian Cooper
Alpine Journal
2007
Conversation with Hamish Fulton - Earthly Powers catalogue
Hamish Fulton, Julian Cooper
Earthly Powers catalogue
The Artists of The Alpine Club
Peter Mallalieu
The Sacred Mountain
Keith Richardson
CA1 Culture and Arts
Spectator
Andrew Lambirth
2005
CATALOGUE ESSAY -
PARETI, GHIACCI, PRECIPIZI
Ben Tufnell
The Romantic North
Melvyn Bragg
Sunday Times Magazine
A Picture of Britain
A Picture of Britain
Tate Publication
2004
Cliffs of Fall catalogue
Conversation with Basil Beattie
Observer
Phil Bartlett
Spectator
John Spurling
27 November
Galleries
Felicity Owen
November
Painting the Eiger
Julian Cooper
The Alpine Journal
2003
PN Review
Grevel Lindop
2002
London Review of Books
David Craig
Cooper x 5 Catalogue
Inger Marie von der Lippe
The Alpine Journal
Stephen Goodwin
2001
The Spectator
Andrew Lambirth
catalogue essay, Mind has Mountains
Andrew Lambirth
catalogue essay, Mind has Mountains
Julian Cooper
RA Magazine
Andrew Lambirth
1999
The Independent
Stephen Goodwin
1998
The Spark
Border TV
The Times
Melvyn Bragg
High Magazine
Terry Gifford
1997
The Independent
Stephen Goodwin
1994
The Page
The Page, May
1991
Celebration
Granada Television
24th June
1990
Sunday Times Review
John Spurling
18th March
1987
Sunday Telegraph Colour Magazine
26th April
1984
New Statesman
John Spurling
August
City Limits
Nigel Politt
29th July
Time Out
Sarah Kent
29th July
Aspects
Iain Biggs
Spring
Sunday Times Colour Magazine
Melvyn Bragg
28th June
Artscribe
Iain Biggs
November
1983
The Tablet
Jacynth Ellerton
30th July
Punch
Melvyn Bragg
27th July
Critics Forum
BBC Radio Three
July
1982
The Guardian
William Varley
16th August
1978
The Sunday Times
Marina Vaizey
December
1975
Arts Review
Max Wykes-Joyce
10th Jan
International Herald Tribune
Max Wykes-Joyce
2nd Jan
1974
Studio International
Peter Fuller
July
Kaleidoscope
July Mervyn Levy
BBC Radio Four
1970
The Observer
Norbert Lynton
5th April
1969
Daily Telegraph
Harold Fenton
29th Oct