The Hans Coper exhibition brings together three murals, shown together for the first time, as well as over twenty other items which include pots, an incised plaster panel, clay prints and the mould for an acoustic wall tile.
Powell Duffryn Mural, commissioned in 1961 from Hans Coper
Hans Coper is recognised as one of Britain’s the most famous ceramicists. He became widely recognised as an innovative ceramicist, one whose work tended to the minimalist abstract, but whose pots remained largely functional. Working with a restrained palette of black, brown and white, he continued to refine the form of his pots, categorised as spade, thistle and arrow forms, enhancing these with abraded finishes and sgraffitto’d incisions which interrupt the surface.
‘I am a potter, but he was an artist’ said Lucie Rie [cited A Show of Hans, Tanya Harrod, The World of Interiors, 16 October 2023]. Coper joined Rie’s studio in 1946, where Coper learned to throw, working at first on Rie’s designs and soon also on his own, as both focused on thrown vessels. They parted, friends and equals, when Coper moved to his own studio in 1959.
Hans Coper ceramics at The Arc, Winchester
Hans Coper ceramics and the Swinton School Mural (1961) at The Arc, Winchester
Coper was intensely private and burned all his papers before his death. A record of his working life, his pots, his studios and Coper himself, was captured in the beautiful images taken by his wife, photographer Jane Gate, some of which accompany the work in this exhibition.
Mural commissioned by Royal Army Pay Corps, Hans Coper
Ceramic pots, Hans Coper
The exhibition has been beautifully curated by the Hampshire Cultural Trust team and is well worth the entrance fee. While Coper’s practice was largely pot based, the three murals were commissioned in the 1960s after his first solo exhibition at Henry Rothschild’s Primavera Gallery, enhanced his reputation. With two murals now in private hands, this may be the last time that the murals are shown together as they will go their separate ways when the exhibition closes on 24 March. There are plans for Fide et Fiducia, originally commissioned by the Royal Army Pay Corps, to remain in Winchester, to be put on public display as part of the Adjutant General’s Corps museum renovations.
Hans Coper: Resurface, The Arc, Winchester until 24 March 2025
Consuelo Simpson is an artist and maker living and working in Hampshire. Her multidisciplinary practice is focused on seeking moments of enchantment and on reaching an accommodation with the world. She remains obsessed with string!