Hans Coper

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Hans Coper (1920–1981), was an influential British studio potter. His work is often closely associated with that of Lucie Rie due to their close association even though their best known work differs dramatically with Rie's being more functional and traditional while Copers was much more abstract and assuredly non functional.

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. It is from this time you will find tea sets and cups and saucers made by both Rie and Coper. By the time he left in 1958 to establish his own studio at Digswell House in Hertfordshire, he was already well known as a potter in his own right experimenting with much more abstract forms that were at the time considered very ahead of their time. Due to the success of his work he went on to became a leading figure in the 20th century studio pottery movement. Throughout 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 and collected even 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, as well as in private collections worldwide. His work can often be found being sold in the best auction houses in both London and New York commanding prices of tens of thousands for rare and important works.

[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.