Barry Cooper

“I have been working as a painter since 1970 and in 1985, at the age of 40, I began an MA degree in painting at the Royal College of Art, studying with Peter de Francia and John Golding, who was a leading authority on Cubism.

In my painting I have retained an interest in the fragmentation of the image, which I continue to find in a fractal space created through planes and elisions inherited from Cubism. Whilst always yearning for a minimalist simplicity, the noise of the outside world continuously breaks in.

The dominance of the unrepeatable mark is a constant, exploring the three dimensional through the layering of paint. The fourth dimension of time in painting, collaborating with musicians, has always been present and is extended in live improvisations. Performing with jazz pianist John Law explored that space found in earlier monochromatic abstractions.

Chaos is never far from the surface; surrounded by the destruction of life in the wider world and viewed from the perspective of the comparative paradise that has been my lifetime in the UK since 1945.”