William Roger “Bill” Cooper (1933-2002)

Prior to his immersion in the language of abstract expressionism in 1965 Bill Cooper worked as an Architect. He was born in New Kensington PA in 1933. He grew up in an industrial community but in a family with a passion for art and music. From a young age he exhibited a rare intellect and understanding of music, art, and mathematics. He subsequently attended and graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology, School of Architecture in1957 He received attention as a gifted designer, totally committed to the ideals and ethics of contemporary architecture. Purity, honesty and devotion to high standards of design were evident in his professional practice. This continued to be his mission and his art. He steadfastly refused to sacrifice these principals, even while achieving notice for his designs. In 1965 he decided to redirect his talent and energies to the language of color painting. With total commitment he embarked on a new world of possibilities. Several meaningful influences weighed on his reasons for this life changing decision. The Carnegie Institute, Fine Arts College, while developing his professional skills, also exposed him to high ideals in music, and art. His eyes were opened to a larger world of possibilities for other expressions of his artistic yearnings.

While working in his profession it became apparent that his personal commitments would be subordinated to the requirements of the establishment. He would find greater satisfaction and independence in color art. Bill Cooper’s art took adefining turn when his first studio in the family garage was established. He went to painting “with a vengeance ” as he later described it.

Cooper began to explore the use of pure color in conjunction with abstract design. He soon developed a style consisting of highly complex arrangements of segments and circles of color. In his early abstractions Cooper referenced his modernistic beginnings while finding inspiration in the contemporary world, bridging generations of modern art from the color veils of Mark Rothko and the Orthic Cubism of Sonia Delaunay to the explosive energies of his current work. Just exactly what has inspired Cooper to sustain abstract painting since 1955 (?) is not certain. It is known that he admired the Abstract Expressionists, particularly, Kandinsky, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, and others later, from the post WW II period. Cooper did not see a break between earlier and later modernism but rather a continuum of natural development and transition. He embraced the continuity between the generations of modernism.

The first of Cooper’s paintings were small and crated in an irregular geometric format of broad bands of color. With relatively stable composition and subdued palettes. They suggest the influences of the disciplined artists of the 40’s and 50’s. Soon Cooper found his way in to the improvisational, free expression that became his signature. Certainly a visual expression of Cooper’s deep knowledge of jazz and contemporary music is apparent. By the 60’s he was working at full throttle, expanding to much larger sizes, breaking from the grid, and using increasingly complex cadences and changes.

In the years that followed Cooper continued to alternate modes,“tempos” and color changes. In 1970’s he returned to the rectilinear format of vertical and horizontal, but he joined these elements with circular motion, producing a new feel. In subsequent works he used a darker, more refined painterly touch, with layered, translucent color panes. Cooper used color and light, with sometimes amusing humor, contrasted with other work of deeply thoughtful “shapes of glorious majesty that speaks of the power in the universe.”

Cooper’s art was nurtured by his studies of art and philosophy and world travel. From study grants in New England, Florida, and Georgia, to extended residences in France, Spain, and Mexico, he gained expanded use of line and color. His never-ending search for meaning and light and color has given him a life of growth in spirit and artistic intellect.

By 2002 Cooper’s work has reached a greater peak of size, complexity, and color intensity as demonstrated by works from one of his Mexican sojourns. The explosive energies as demonstrated in works such as the “Melate’ series put into graphic form what Cooper calls the “relentless forces of selection, chance” in an “ever expanding infinitude.” Works of Cooper refer to the world of space and time with shapes clear and distinct from others seeking a similar message. Fusing the older with the contemporary, Cooper refers both to early modernism and to the abstract illusionism developed by artists in the 1960s such as Frank Stella, Al Held, and Ron Davis, but never ceasing to experiment and find ways that Abstraction can “contribute meaning meaning to life and announce its beauty and capacity.”

In his latest abstractions, Cooper references his modernistic beginnings while finding inspiration in today’s world. Bridging generations of modern art as he moves his art in new directions. Cooper’s work reveals a strength and assurance gained from a lifetime of painting

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