Barrie Cooke (b.1931)

The abstract expressionist painter, Barrie Cooke, was born in Cheshire, England. After a childhood spent in England, the United States, Jamaica and Bermuda, he studied Art History at Harvard University. He held his first solo exhibition in New York in 1950. After Harvard, he studied drawing and painting at Skowhegan in Mainie and showed his paintings in Boston before moving to a small cottage in County Clare, in 1954. The following year he held his first solo art show in Dublin and received a scholarship to study with Oskar Kokoschka in Salzburg. He represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1963.

Although based in Ireland since the 1950s, Cooke's frequent trips to countries such as Lapland, New Zealand, Borneo and Malaya has imbued his expressionist, semi-abstract paintings with a wide range of naturalistic possibilities.

This fuses with his immersion in the water-rich landscape of Ireland, his interest in marine life and fishing.

In contrast, he has also painted a number of nudes and produced several sculptures.

Barrie Cooke is a member of Aosdána and has exhibited widely throughout Europe, the USA and Canada. Major retrospectives include shows in the Douglas Hyde Gallery (1986), the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (1992), LAC, Perpignan, France (1995), and the Royal Hibernian Academy Gallagher Gallery (2003).

His paintings are represented in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Ulster Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Haags Gemeentemuseum, and in many other collections worldwide. He won the Marten Toonder Award in 1988, and the Irish-American Cultural Institute's O'Malley Award in 2002.

Source:
Online Encyclopedia of Irish and World Art
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/irish-artists/barrie-cooke.htm

Barrie Cooke (b.1931)

He moved to the US as a teenager and studied Art History at Harvard University. In 1954, he moved to Ireland and had his first solo exhibition in Dublin the following year. He received a scholarship to study with Oskar Kokoschka in Salzburg in 1955 and represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1963. Though Cooke had been based in Ireland ever since, he was widely traveled and his richly expressionist, semi-abstract paintings have been strongly influenced by time spent in such far-flung places as Lapland, New Zealand, Borneo and Malaya. Nature in its infinite variety and irresistible flux was Cooke's chosen environment and subject matter. His paintings offer us profoundly immediate and visceral accounts of such an environment, both of its vitality and decay. In the words of Chief Arts Critic of the Irish Times, Aidan Dunne, "It's hard to see [his paintings] without receiving an intimation of what it is to be intensely alive. "

Over several decades, Cooke collaborated with a number of prominent poets including Seamus Heaney, as well as the British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. Nobel laureate Heaney referred to his 'aqueous vision' and shared his fascination with the elemental. Barrie Cooke has exhibited widely throughout Europe, the US and New Zealand. Major retrospectives include the Royal Hibernian Academy Gallery, Dublin in 2003, LAC, Perpignan, France in 1995, the Haags Gemeentemuseum in 1992 and the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1986. Recent exhibitions include the Irish Musuem of Modern Art, Dublin, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (2011), the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny; (2009) and Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo (2002).

His work is represented in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Ulster Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Holland and in many other public and private collections worldwide. Barrie Cooke was a member of Aosdana.

Piece written by The Kerlin Gallery following the recent passing of the artist

Barrie Cooke was born in Cheshire, studied Art History at Harvard University and moved to Ireland in 1954. Cooke painted water, both clean and polluted all his life and was provoked to make work with an ethical response to ecological trauma. An example of his work is "DYDIMO, 2007" from an exhibition 'Water' about the later stages of a severe algae growth that hit rivers. Cooke has exhibited widely throughout Europe, the US and Canada. Major retrospectives of his work were held at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin in 1986, at the RHA in 1995 and at IMMA in 2008. His work is represented in public and private collections worldwide. Barrie Cooke was a long-standing board member of the Butler Gallery. Barrie Cooke passed away in 2014.