Hans Coper
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Hans Coper (1920–1981), was an influential British studio potter. His work is closely associated with that of Lucie Rie.
Born in Chemnitz, Germany, Hans Coper fled to Britain in 1939. He was detained in Canada for two years as an enemy alien and then served briefly in the British Army.
In 1946, with no previous experience in ceramics, he began working as an assistant in the studio of Lucie Rie. By the time he left in 1958 to establish his own studio in Hertfordshire, he was already well known as a potter in his own right. He became a leading figure in the 20th century studio pottery movement. In the 1960s he taught ceramics at the Camberwell School of Art and the Royal College of Art. He died in Frome, Somerset in 1981 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Coper would characteristically throw his work on the potter's wheel, then alter and assemble pieces by hand to achieve the finished form. Thus, although made on the wheel, his work has a sculptural quality and is non-functional. The surfaces of his pots tend to be roughly textured and colored with oxides, especially manganese oxide. His distinctive pots take on recognizable "forms" he termed Spade, Bud, Cup, Egg, Flower and Arrow.
Coper's work was widely exhibited in his lifetime. Today, it is found in the collections of major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Sainsbury Collection, and in private collections worldwide.
[edit] Bibliography
- Birks, Tony. Hans Coper, Marston House Publishers, 1998. ISBN 0-9517700-0-4
- Coatts, Morgot (ed.). Lucie Rie and Hans Coper: Potters in Parallel, Herbert Press, 1997. ISBN 0-7136-4697-7.
- Frankel, Cyril. Modern Pots: Hans Coper, Lucie Rie & their Contemporaries, University of East Anglia Press, 2002. ISBN 0-946009-36-8.
