Artist
Hans Coper
Germany/Britain
Cycladic echoes. Ancient forms made new.
A refugee who never trained as a potter created forms that seem to come from an ancient civilization that never existed.
Hans Coper fled Nazi Germany in 1939. In 1946, he answered an advertisement to assist Lucie Rie in her button-making business. He had no ceramic training, but within years, he was creating work unlike anything in ceramic history. His pieces evoke ancient Mediterranean pottery, Cycladic figures, African sculpture—yet they belong to no tradition. His 'spade forms,' 'thistle forms,' and composite vessels seem archaeological, as if excavated from a culture that existed only in his imagination.
What forms might you create that belong to no tradition?