A Life in the Arts…
Rummaging through the attic of Art History, Gene Cooper takes on the ambitious task of commingling previously unrelated visual forms into a new relationship of formal order, empathetic connection and aesthetic pleasures.
Professor Cooper is a distinguished art historian and teacher. Upon his retirement several years ago he decided to try and learn to draw and paint. These works are the result of his effort to use different sources of photographic reproductions and combine them with his own perceptual and conceptual renderings of still-lifes, landscapes, and interiors.
The Artist's Spaces Series attempts to decontextualize well-known painters into new and interesting juxtapositions, allowing us the deep pleasure of witnessing both the struggles and successes of his research. For those that love painting and enjoy the full experience of both struggle and joy in this challenging process......….welcome to the painter’s world! “
~ Wayne Thiebaud, 2012