Maurice Cockrill is one of the most protean painters to have emerged in the UK since the War. Restless, lyrical and challenging, his work is constantly evolving, defying conventional categorization, and has ranged from photorealism to expressionism, and from sexually charged landscapes to mythological subjects and near abstraction.
Always at odds with both the mainstream and the avant garde, owing to his commitment to painting and the notion of skilled work, Cockrill is nothing if not rigorous in his approach to his art. In 1968, already in his early thirties, he destroyed everything he had produced up to that date and started again from scratch. Within twenty years the gamble had paid off. This, the first book to be published about the artist, brings together all the major groups and series of Cockrill's paintings created since the end of the 1980s, the period of his most mature and accomplished work: 'Generation', 'Wheat', 'Song of the Earth', 'Place of Fire' and 'Four Elements', among other series. It emphasizes the consistency of themes, motifs and vision underlying Cockrill's more recent work, as well as its sheer inventiveness and depth of meaning.
Both authors have had a longstanding and close working relationship with the artist, and draw on extended conversations with him for the essays published here. Marco Livingstone's introduction establishes the context and background of Cockrill's earlier, figurative work, while Nicholas Alfrey traces the themes that emerged in the 1990s, elucidating the artist's dense and often personal imagery, and tracing how the artist's own life has fed into his work's engagement with nature and its perpetual regeneration in the face of human intervention.
Cockrill's reputation as a 'painter's painter' is already assured; this lavishly illustrated, engagingly written book leaves one in no doubt that he is also one of the most original artists working in Britain today.
Maurice Cockrill RA -
1936 Born, 8 October, Hartlepool, UK
1960-64 Studied at Wrexham School of Art and University of Reading
1967-80 Lecturer, Faculty of Art, Liverpool Polytechnic
1971 Visits Spain
1975 Visits Holland, Belgium and Germany
1981 Extended visit to Italy
1982 Moves to London
1982-85 Occasional visiting tutor at Schools of Art in Manchester, Portsmouth, Farnham, Winchester and Nottingham
1985-88 Visiting tutor at Royal College of Art and Central School of Art
1984-94 Visiting tutor at Saint Martins School of Art
1994 Nominated for the Jerwood Prize
1995 Artist in Residence at G.O.F.A. University of N.S.W. Australia
1995-97 Visiting tutor at Royal Academy Schools
1999 Elected to the Royal Academy of Arts
2002 Visiting Artist, Vermont Studio Centre
2004 Visiting Artist, Vermont Studio Centre
2004 Elected the Keeper of the Royal Academy of Arts and Head of the Royal Academy Schools
Lives and works in London
Awards
1977 Arts Council of GB, Flags and other Projects (prize-winner), Royal Festival Hall
1977-78 Arts Council of Great Britain major award. Extended visit to United States
1978-79 Arts Council, Works of Art in Public Spaces
1985 British Council award
Television
1976 ‘Arena’, October, BBC2
1981 ‘Celebration’, March, Granada Television
1999 ‘Afon’, August, Harlech Television
Solo Exhibitions
1971 Serpentine Gallery, London
Peterloo Gallery, Manchester
1974,79 Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
1976 Liverpool Academy Gallery
1979 St. Paul’s Gallery, Leeds
1979-80 Lime Street Station, Liverpool
1981 Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
1981 Festival Commission, Milton Keynes
1983 University of Nottingham Gallery
1984,85 Edward Totah Gallery, London
1985 Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf
1986 Galerie Bugdahn und Szeimies, Düsseldorf
1987-90 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
1988 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, New York
1992 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance, Spacex Gallery, Exeter
1992 Plymouth Art Centre, Plymouth
1993 Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf
1994 Galerie Helmut Pabst, Frankfurt, Galerie Molinaars, Breda, Holland; works on paper
1995 Galerie Helmut Pabst, Frankfurt
Retrospective 1974-1994, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London. Place of Fire
Galerie Clivages, Paris The Ash Series
Annandale Galleries, Sydney, Australia
Djanogly Gallery, University of Nottingham, retrospective
1996 Annandale Galleries, Sydney, Australia. Drawings
Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London. A Portable Kingdom
1997 Galerie Clivages, Paris Galerie Helmut Pabst, Frankfurt
Belgrave Gallery, London; works on paper
1998 Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf
Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. Retrospective
Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
Galerie le Triangle Bleu, Stavelot, Belgium
Galerie Helmut Pabst, Frankfurt
Ogilvy and Estill Gallery, Conwy, Wales
1999 Annandale Galleries, Sydney Australia
2000 Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf
Galerie Vidal-Saint Phalle, Paris
2001 Galerie Helmut Pabst, Frankfurt
2002 Royal Academy, London, Friends' Room exhibition
2002 Archeus Fine Art, London
Selected Mixed Exhibitions
1967 Art in a City, ICA, London
1968 Poets’ Choice, A.I.A. Gallery, London
1971 Spectrum North, Arts Council of GB tour-
Leeds City Art Gallery, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
Manchester City Art Gallery.
Bluecoat Gallery Liverpool
Now, Welsh Arts Council tour
1972 Every Picture Tells, Welsh Arts Council tour
1973 Eisteddfod Festival, Wales (prize-winner)
Communication, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1974 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 9 (prize-winner)
Industrial Sponsors Exhibition, Grosvenor House, London
Aspects of Realism, Sunderland Arts Centre
1975 Reality, Fantasy, Illusion. Rochdale Art Gallery Liverpool Academy at Third Eye Centre, Glasgow
1976 Face of Merseyside, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 10
1977 Real Life, Peter Moores Project 4, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Arts Council Collection 1976/77, Hayward Gallery, London
1979 Recent Purchases, University of Liverpool, Senate House
1980 University of Nottingham
1981 Cleveland International Drawing Biennale
1982 British Drawing, Hayward Gallery Annual, London
Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
1982-83 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 13
1983 Edward Totah Gallery, London
Tolly Cobbold 4th National Exhibition, Barbican Art Gallery, London
1984 Capital Painting, Barbican Gallery, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1985 Edward Totah Gallery, London
1985 Hommage aux Femmes, ICC Galerie, Berlin, touring- Municipal Museum, Leverkusen
Athena Art Awards, Barbican Art Gallery, London
John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 14, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1988 Mother and Child, Lefevre Gallery, London
1989 Recent Paintings, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
Salute to Turner, Agnews Fine Art, London
1990-91 Forces of Nature, Manchester City Art Gallery, touring-Harris Museum, Preston
1991 Works on Paper, Galerie Molinaars, Breda, Holland
1991-2 Cabinet Paintings, Gillian Jason Gallery, London, touring-Cyril Gerber Gallery, Glasgow, Hove Museum and Art Gallery, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
1992 The Figure Laid Bare, Pomeroy Purdy Gallery, London
1994 Nomination for the Jerwood Prize—exhibition held at the Royal Scottish
Academy, Edinbrugh and the Royal Academy, London
1995 ‘Painting’, Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf
Paintscapes, Harewood House, Yorkshire
1996 Natural Forces, Reeds Wharf Gallery
Black Grey White, Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer
1997 Florence Trust, London – guest artist
Tamworth City Art Gallery, New South Wales
1998 Cairns Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales, (drawings, touring)
1999 Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
Annandale Galleries, Sydney
Art Fairs, Berlin, Cologne
1999,2000 Royal Academy, London
2000 Afon, Oriel Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno, Wales
Galerie Vidal-Saint Phalle, Paris, (four artists) Universitaire Moretus Plantin, Namur, Belgium
2001 Musee des Beaux-Arts de Tourcoing, works on paper
2002 Royal Cambrian Academy
2009 The Richmond Hill Gallery solo show
Collections
British Museum
Arts Council of Great Britain
Welsh Arts Council
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Ulster Museum, Belfast
Hertfordshire Education Committee
The Leicester Collection
London Borough of Camden
University of Liverpool
Liverpool Daily Post
Alexander Howden Group
Borough of Milton Keynes
John Moores
D.G. Bank
Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport
Granada Television
Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf
Contemporary Arts Society
Deutsche Bank
Unilever
Centro Cultural Arte Contempraneo, Polanco, Mexico
Riggs Bank AG London
Royal Academy, London