Eileen Cooper
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What is the new “Learning to Fly” exhibition and why is it significant?
Good afternoon, good evening, good morning, wherever you are in the world. My name is Robert Diament, and you're listening to Talk Art. Welcome to TalkArt. Today I am feeling magical. And that is a slight reference to what some people have called today's guests' work: five decades of exploring the female experience through autobiographical references and Also referencing mythology, but there is this kind of term of like magical realism, which is a really beautiful idea, I think, because it brings to mind the kind of everyday, which could be seen as a very mundane thing in many ways, but sort of making it magical or having supernatural elements involved. So it kind of really helps to tell stories, and I think it really helps.
viewers of the paintings and of artworks generally to kind of access it as some kind of escapist realm, maybe. And I think it just is a really wonderful kind of movement in a way and style. And today's guest has been, as I said, making work for more than five decades and is someone that I kind of grew up being familiar with through the Royal Academy because my mum was a massive fan of her work. And then I I became a big fan. And then in the last few years, we've actually become friends. And it's been a really wonderful thing. I actually saw her recently at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, which many years ago she even curated, which is a very cool thing, which I'd love to chat about in a bit. So we are actually on the eve of a new exhibition which is about to open called Learning to Fly in London.
And we'll also be talking about this particular new body of work because Because I just think they're some of the best paintings our guest has ever made. And I'm really happy that we're actually talking on the eve of this beautiful new exhibition. So I would like to welcome to TalkArt Eileen Cooper. Thank you. What
a great intro.
How are you today? What where where do we find you?
I'm in my studio, uh, with lots of new beginnings, uh having packed everything up for learning to fly, which has gone to the gallery. So I'm in a nice stage of starting again.
Yeah, and this is a new exhibition for your gallerist in London, Kristin Hajel Gerd. How do you say her surname? How do you say her name? I'm really sorry if I've got to be a little bit more than a little bit. I'm really sorry if I didn't know. It's the
biggest challenge. Kristen Heleyade, I think. Heleyade. She's Norwegian and she's a force. She's a true life force. I think we can call her Kristen for short.
Okay. For those who haven't been before, where is the gallery in London? 'Cause I know she has a few galleries.
Yeah, the Lake Gallery in London is in Tanner Street, just off Bermansey Street, so it's very handy for anybody travelling.
Now you talked about new beginnings there because you obviously just shipped all your work to the gallery in London. So in the show itself, Learning to Fly, I think there's an element in a few of the paintings of kind of new beginnings actually, which is a quite interesting idea because spring and the arrival of spring and kind of renewal and um there's a lot of flowers, but not just like I don't I don't know, like mundane flowers. They're they're really vibrant flowers. They they all seem to have a lot of energy and they feel very alive. Can you speak a bit about this idea of a new beginning or spring?
Suppose it's a privilege to be thinking of new beginnings at the ripe old age I am. Flowers have always been important. I try not to be too sweet with them. I want them to be forceful and they crop up from time to time and then they disappear. But in this group of work, which is in two groups within one show really, there are the studio based paintings and the more magical paintings which are a about flying and falling. And I've always made paintings with figures flying. From time to time, maybe one decade, there are no flying figures. Then they appear again. And from time to time I've always made paintings about the artist at work. Uh falling and flying are big themes for me. Folding them.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the new “Learning to Fly” exhibition and why is it significant?
0:04–8:49
2
How does Eileen Cooper explore themes of new beginnings and spring in her recent paintings?
8:49–19:59
3
Why are flying and falling figures recurring motifs in Cooper’s work?
19:59–34:06
4
How did Cooper’s upbringing in the Peak District influence her artistic vision?
34:06–41:41
5
What was Cooper’s experience studying at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art?
41:41–53:44
6
Why does Cooper consider drawing essential to her practice?
53:44–58:19