Piano Nobile
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Viewing Room
  • News
  • InSight
  • Publications
  • About
  • Contact
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu

Jean Cooke: Seascapes & Chalk Caves

Upcoming exhibition
3 March - 10 May 2023 Piano Nobile
  • Summary
  • Works
  • Publications
  • Press
Summary
Jean Cooke, Seascapes & Chalk Caves

When painting in Sussex, Jean Cooke wrapped herself in the forces of nature. Her pictures of beach, cliff and sea were made over a forty-year period from 1965 until her death, and each one shows her awareness of ‘the wind always blowing, the light changing, the tide going in or out’. In her remarkable ‘cave paintings’ she used imagery suggestive of the female body, transforming a chalk hollow into a womb-like enclosure. Cooke often worked outdoors, and her spontaneous mark-making was inspired by an intense first-hand experience of the subject. Piano Nobile's exhibition Jean Cooke: Seascapes & Chalk Caves brings together pictures of beach, coast and sea by Cooke selected from a period between 1963 and 2008.

 

Cooke once said: ‘In order to paint I have to get away from distractions, and also get away from an awareness of myself’. The Sussex coast helped to induce that state of creativity. As a child Cooke was evacuated to the village of East Dean during the Second World War. She began making regular visits to nearby Birling Gap in the mid-sixties, renting a cliff-top toehold – 1 Crangon Cottages – that became a retreat from her home in London. On this beautiful outcrop, endangered by coastal erosion, Cooke positioned herself at the meeting point of sea, sky, and the famous chalk cliffs at Seven Sisters and Beachy Head. As erosion brought the cliff edge ever closer, demolition became necessary in 1995. Cooke responded by acquiring the neighbouring cottage: ‘that will see me out’, she said.

 

The exhibition is accompanied by a significant publication about Jean Cooke and her connection with East Sussex. It includes the first comprehensive chronology of the artist and an essay by Jane Alison, former Head of Visual Arts at the Barbican, which considers Cooke's work in the context of eco-feminism. Rarely seen photographs of Cooke and the artist's own photographs of Sussex are also published here for the first time.

 

Piano Nobile represents the Estate of Jean Cooke.

 

For further information, available works and press enquiries please contact the gallery. 

 

 

Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Works
  • Jean Cooke, Cave Painting, 1965
    Jean Cooke, Cave Painting, 1965
  • Jean Cooke, Seaweed, 1971
    Jean Cooke, Seaweed, 1971
  • Jean Cooke, Cave Painting II, 1970, c.
    Jean Cooke, Cave Painting II, 1970, c.
  • Jean Cooke, Small Seascape 1, 2007, c.
    Jean Cooke, Small Seascape 1, 2007, c.
  • Jean Cooke, Untitled [Sea Shore], 2007, c.
    Jean Cooke, Untitled [Sea Shore], 2007, c.
  • Jean Cooke, Rock and Sea, 2007, c.
    Jean Cooke, Rock and Sea, 2007, c.
  • Jean Cooke, Sunset, Birling Gap, 1988
    Jean Cooke, Sunset, Birling Gap, 1988
  • Jean Cooke, Shoreline, 1990, c.
    Jean Cooke, Shoreline, 1990, c.
  • Jean Cooke, The Sea was Green, 1990, c.
    Jean Cooke, The Sea was Green, 1990, c.
Close
Publications
  • Jean Cooke

    Jean Cooke

    Seascapes & Chalk Caves Jane Alison, 2023 Read more
Press
  • Sussex Landscape: Chalk, Wood and Water

    Sussex Landscape: Chalk, Wood and Water

    Pallant House Gallery, Chichester Read more

Related artist

  • Jean Cooke

    Jean Cooke

Back to exhibitions

Subscribe to our mailing list

Subscribe

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied to communicate with you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

PIANO NOBILE

96 / 129 Portland Road | London | W11 4LW

+44 (0)20 7229 1099

info@piano-nobile.com 

Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm | Saturday 11am - 4pm

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
View on Google Maps
Privacy Policy
Manage cookies
Terms & Conditions
Copyright © 2023 Piano Nobile
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences