Bernard Cohen (born 1933, London) is a British

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

. He is regarded as one of the leading British abstract artists of his time.

Biography

Bernard Cohen studied at Central Saint Martins School of Art in London between 1950-1951, followed by the Slade School of Art from 1954-1956. In 1957 Cohen received the Boise Traveling Scholarship and together with the French Government Scholarship awarded to him in 1954, he was able to travel and work in France, Spain and Italy. Following various teaching positions throughout the 60s and 70s at Ealing School of Art, the Slade, Chelsea College of Art & Design, the Royal College of Art and the University of New Mexico; in 1988 he was appointed Slade Professor and Director of the Slade School of Art, UCL, a position held until 2000. Cohen's first solo exhibition took place at Gimpel Fils, London in 1958. His work has been exhibited widely as part of several international touring

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

exhibitions. Other notable exhibitions include, ''Five Young British Artists'', the 1966 Venice Biennale's British Pavilion show, a retrospective at the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Roy ...

in 1972 titled ''Bernard Cohen, Paintings & Drawings 1959-1971'' and a ''Spotlight Display'' at Tate Britain in 2018. His work is held in the collections of the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, UK,

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, UK,

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

(MoMA), USA,

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the most visited art museum in Denmark, and has an extensive permanent collection of modern and cont ...

, DK,

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One o ...

, PT, the British Council, UK, and many more both nationally and internationally. Cohen currently lives and works in London and continues to exhibit his work widely with exhibitions in 2018 including,
''Spotlight Display'' at Tate Britain
(4 December 2017 - 4 June 2018) and a show alongside his son Nathan Cohen at

Flowers Gallery The Flowers Galleries are two galleries in London (on Cork Street in the West End, and in Shoreditch in the East End) and a third in the Chelsea district of New York City. The three galleries represent over 60 artists. History The first F ...

''Bernard & Nathan Cohen: Two Journeys''
(16 March 2018 - 5 May 2018).

Bibliography

Exhibition Catalogues *''Bernard Cohen, Paintings and Drawings 1959-71'' atalogue of the exhibition held at the Hayward Gallery, 6 April - 14 May 1972London *''London: The New Scene'' [Catalogue of the touring exhibition organised collaboratively by Walker Art Center and British Council in association with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation held at Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Toronto and National Gallery of Canada, 30 October 1965 - 20 May 1966] Canada *''Paintings from the Nineties'' [Catalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers East, 15 May – 21 June 1998] London *''Paintings from the Sixties,'' [Catalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers East, 2007] London Monographs *Lynton, N. & Mackay, I. (2009) ''Bernard Cohen: Work of Six Decades,'' Flowers, London *Mackay, I. (2015) ''Bernard Cohen: About Now,'' Flowers, London.

References

External links

*
''Bernard Cohen – It’s a Matter of Dancing with Chaos''
Interview with the artist for Tateshots
Flowers Gallery
London.

Interview with the artist {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Bernard 1933 births Living people 20th-century British painters British male painters 21st-century British painters Academics of the Slade School of Fine Art Artists from London 20th-century British male artists 21st-century British male artists