Hans Coper - Design London Thursday, May 2, 2024 | Phillips

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  • He was not able to say, in positive terms, what he sought.

    Only to make clear, negatively, what he did not seek. This is not to say that what he didn't seek he didn't admire. For example, he greatly admired the plain paste Woolworth's bowls that he drank his coffee from.

    For Hans, it was important to have a goal that could not, in principle, be reached. He preferred to remain radically unclear about his own objective and was more than satisfied to be able to give no reason for preserving one pot and destroying another.

    He had no aesthetic theory, although of course he had a personal style both in life and art, in which simplicity and frugality were dominant factors.”
    —Donald Brook

    The above quote comes from the sculptor Donald Brook, who lived with his wife Phyllis in the upstairs flat of Hans's small home and studio at Digswell House in Hertfordshire. The two worked alongside one another and developed a friendship over the course of their residencies: exchanging opinions on artists' varying styles and philosophies, playing games of chess, or enjoying an occasional glass of whisky while waiting for the kilns to reach temperature.

     

    Phyllis, Donald Brook and Hans Coper.
    Photo: ©Jane Coper

     

    • Provenance

      Donald Brook, Digswell, England
      Gifted from the above to the present owner, 2018

    • Literature

      Tony Birks, Hans Coper, Catrine, 2013, p. 187 for a similar example

    • Artist Biography

      Hans Coper

      German • 1920 - 1981

      Hans Coper learned his craft in the London studio of Lucie Rie, having emigrated from Germany as a young Jewish engineering student in 1939. He initially assisted Rie in the studio with the ceramic buttons she made for the fashion industry, as well as ceramic tableware, but soon Coper was producing his own work. By 1951 he had received considerable recognition exhibiting his pots in the "Festival of Britain." 

       

      Coper favored compound shapes that, while simple in appearance, were in fact complex in construction. Similar to the making of Joseon Dynasty Moon Jars (Rie in fact displayed a Moon Jar in the studio), he would build his vessels by bringing several thrown forms together, for example joining bowls rim to rim. Coper eschewed glazes and preferred the textured surfaces achieved through the application of white and black slips, evoking the abraded texture of excavated vessels. This interest in ancient objects was very much in step with other modernists of his time—Coper admired Constantin Brancusi and Alberto Giacometti and his textured markings have been compared to sculptors such as William Turnbull.

       

      In the last phase of his career, Coper reduced the scale of his work creating small "Cycladic" pots that stood on pedestals or drums, recalling the clay figures of Bronze Age Greece. 

      View More Works

82

Rare white 'Cycladic Arrow' form

circa 1974
Stoneware, layered porcelain slips and engobes over a textured and incised body, the interior with a manganese glaze.
20 x 10 x 7 cm (7 7/8 x 3 7/8 x 2 3/4 in.)
Underside impressed with artist's seal.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£70,000 - 90,000 ‡♠

Sold for £82,550

Contact Specialist

Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
+44 20 7901 7944
Antonia.King@phillips.com
 

Design

London Auction 2 May 2024