Bernard Cohen (British b.1933)
Painter of abstracts and influential teacher, he began his studies at the South West Essex Technical College and School of Art, 1949-50; followed by St Martin's School of Art, London, 1950-51 and Slade School of Fine Art, London, 1951-54. Awarded French government scholarship in 1954 and a Boise Travelling Scholarship in 1956 he took the opportunity to work in France, Spain and Italy.
His first one-man exhibition was held at Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham, 1958 and in the same year he showed in London at Gimpel Fils. From the 1960s Cohen began to build up an impressive list of British and foreign exhibition appearances, showing at the Venice Biennale in 1966. In 1972 a retrospective exhibition was held at Hayward Gallery followed by key appearances in Milan and Paris in the 1970s.
Cohen taught for periods in London at Ealing School of Art, Chelsea and Wimbledon and was Slade professor and chairman of fine art, London University, from 1988. His early work was influenced by Abstract Expressionism and later was very colourful and detailed, full of imagery and a variety of texture, as shown in the special show at the Tate in 1995.
Public collection include
Tate Gallery, London
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
British Council, London
Caracas Museum, Venezuela
Swindon Art Gallery, Wiltshire
Contemporary Art Society, London
Department of the Environment, London
Dechert LLP, London
British Broadcasting Corporation, London
Arts Council of Great Britain, London
Peter Stuyvesant Collection, London
Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
University of Liverpool
Ulster Museum, Belfast
University of South Wales, Cardiff
Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund
Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Fogg Museum, Boston
Mellon Collection, Yale
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA
University College, London
Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Manchester City Art Galleries
The Louisiana Museum, Denmark
Museum of Modern Art, Tehran
Bibliography
N. LYNTON, I. MacKAY, Bernard Cohen: Work of Six Decades, Flowers East, UK, 2009
Solo Exhibitions
1958, Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham; Gimpel Fils, London
1960, Gimpel Fils, London
1962, Molton Gallery, London
1963, Kasmin Gallery, London
1964, Kasmin Gallery, London (drawings)
1966, Editions Alecto, London (prints)
1967, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York; Kasmin Gallery, London; Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, (retrospective exhibition)
1972, Hayward Gallery, London (retrospective exhibition); Waddington Galleries, London (prints); Studio La Citta, Verona; Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (drawings, gouaches and prints); Hester van Roijen, London (drawings and gouaches)
1973, Galleria Annunciata, Milan
1974, Waddington Galleries, London
1975, Studio La Citta, Verona; Hester van Roijen, London
1976, Tate Gallery, London (print retrospective); Sharks Lithography Gallery, Boulder, Colorado; Galleria Lorenzelli, Milan
1977, Waddington and Tooth Galleries, London; Gallery Omana, Osaka, Japan (drawings and prints)
1980, Waddington Graphics, London
1990, Waddington Galleries, London
1994-5, 35 Years of Drawing, Ben Uri Gallery, London and touring to Norwich, Bristol and Birmingham
1995, Artist in Focus, six paintings by Bernard Cohen from the Tate Gallery Collection, Tate Gallery, London
1998, Bernard Cohen: Paintings of the Nineties, Flowers East, London
1999, Bernard Cohen: Paintings of the Nineties, Flowers West, Santa Monica, California
2000, Bernard Cohen, Flowers Central, London
2004, Bernard Cohen, Flowers Central, London
2005, Polychrome Etchings 2005, Flowers Graphics, London
2006, Bernard Cohen: Paintings, Flowers, New York
2007, Bernard Cohen: Paintings from the Sixties, Flowers East, London
2009, Bernard Cohen: Work of Six Decades. A Retrospective Exhibition, Flowers, London