Prof Maurice Cockrill RA (1936-2013)

Literature

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