Artist     William Cooper
Title      The Road to the Mine
Date      1980s
object    Sculpture
Media    mixed media
Size       61 x 76cm
Ref          978

A kind gift from the artist in 2005

Other websites featuring this artist's work
www.rwa.org.uk/memfrm.htm

The Road to the Mine
On his way home from school as a boy, William Cooper used to hop off his train early in order to make a detour via a well stocked, turpentine smelling artshop named Robersons. He regarded his school art classes as futile and slow, their weekly tedium bringing endless exercises in lino cutting; the trips to Robersons however, satisfied his thirst for real art and an abundance of interesting materials which he described as a ‘Mecca for all artists’.

As time passed, Cooper’s work prevailed over the disruptions of War, the onslaught of polio and an alternative career teaching Geography. By the mid 1960s, Cooper was married with three young children, and his summer holidays from teaching no longer satisfied his growing need to make artwork. His successful career as a schoolmaster was gaining momentum and he felt he could make little progress in the technicalities of painting in his brief annual vacations. Unexpected respite came in the inspiration drawn from an autobiography by Julian Trevelyan. The text and illustrations of Trevelyans industrial scenes, in collage, fascinated him and he embarked upon an entirely new venture: Collage.

Despite the questioning perceptions of collage as a durable and important art form at this time, Cooper continued to explore its limitless possibilities and revelled in his new found techniques. Further inspiration came from Lowry and eventually in 1973 he was given a one man show at the Drian Gallery in London, the same year that he was elected as an RWA Academician. Further solo shows ensued nationwide and his collages became increasingly popular.

Following his retirement from teaching at Sherbourne School, William Cooper and his wife travelled widely, collecting ideas and inspiration for new subjects from which he created a wealth of new work.

Part of a series of industrial pictures,‘The Road to the Mine’ is regarded as one of Coopers most successful pieces. Within it there is evidence of the Welsh valleys, having been born in Merthyr Tydfil, the artist has worked on many collages of the area.

In his later years, Cooper has returned to the easel with the effects of polio and reduced mobility drawing him back to oil and acrylic painting, where he started : “ Maybe I have been subconsciously influenced by a sentence in a generally complimentary review of one of my earlier collage exhibitions which commented, ‘Why collage, Why not paint? Either way, I seem to have come full circle” 

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