Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1890 Souris, Manitoba, Canada

Died: 1964 London, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1896

Biography

Illustrator and commercial artist, Austin Cooper was born to an Irish farmer father on 5 March 1890 in Souris, Manitoba, Canada. In 1896, his family immigrated to Wales, where Cooper later studied at the Cardiff School of Art. He then moved to Scotland after winning a scholarship to study at the Allan-Frazer College of Art in Arbroath, where he was enrolled between 1905 and 1909. After completing his studies, he moved to London in 1910 and attended evening classes at the City and Guilds Art School. However, he soon returned to Canada, where he worked as an interior designer and commercial artist in Montreal, before taking up a similar position in Calgary. There, he collaborated with a fellow Scottish student, Adam Sherriff Scott, on the 1913 painting Christ in Calgary, which was exhibited at the local Royal Picture Gallery. Unsigned and considered somewhat controversial, this modern take on a classical religious theme depicted Christ in modern-day Calgary as part of a multi-ethnic and vibrant scene. The painting has since been lost. With the outbreak of the First World War, Cooper was sent to Flanders as part of the Canadian Black Watch, soon obtaining the position of Regimental Sergeant Major.

Cooper was discharged in 1919 and briefly returned to Canada. However, in 1922, he moved back to London to live with his fiancée, whom he later married and with whom he had two children. He continued working in the commercial art world, initially as a poster designer for London Transport and other commercial clients. He later took up the position of principal at the Reimann School of Commercial and Industrial Art, where he remained from 1936 to 1940. The school was originally established in Berlin in 1902 but moved to London in 1937, when its Jewish founder, Albert Reimann, was forced to flee Nazi-occupied Germany. During this period, Cooper worked with clients such as Radio Times, London and North Eastern Railway, Empire Marketing Board, London Transport, Underground Electric Railway Company, Royal Mail Line, Indian State Railways and the General Post Office. He also designed posters for exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum. His posters exemplify a bold, modernist approach, characteristic of early and mid-20th-century commercial art, integrating strong geometric forms and vibrant colour contrasts to create a striking visual impact. His compositions often feature simplified, stylised figures and architectural elements, reducing detail in favour of clear, dynamic shapes that convey movement and energy. A recurring use of dramatic perspective and framing devices, such as silhouetted trees or angular structures, enhances depth and directs the viewer’s eye through the image. Cooper employed a limited but highly saturated palette, frequently juxtaposing warm and cool tones to heighten visual appeal. This stylistic approach borrows from interwar graphic design trends influenced by Futurism, Constructivism, and Art Deco, merging artistic experimentation with commercial functionality. Around 1943, Cooper abandoned the commercial art world to focus on abstract painting. He also experimented with abstract collage and watercolours, and while some of his abstract works retained connections to his commercial designs, at other times he embraced a freer, more expressive Abstract Expressionist style.

In 1948, Cooper held his first solo exhibition at the London Gallery, followed by regular exhibitions at Gimpel Fils, a London gallery established by a Jewish art-dealing emigre family from Paris, which presented one of his most successful exhibitions in 1955. In addition to showing in London, he also exhibited in Paris, including at Galerie Craven. In 2018, his works were included in the V&A exhibition, The Art of the Ocean Liner Travel Poster, which explored the rise in ocean travel, the grand designs of the vessels themselves, and the development of the illustrated poster. The exhibition examined how graphic artists were commissioned to depict both the technological advancements and the leisure aspects of modern ocean travel and shipping.

Austin Cooper died in London, England in 1964. In the UK public domain, Cooper’s posters are held in the collections of the British Council, Manchester Art Gallery, the Science Museum, Tate, and the V&A, among others, while archival material is held in the National Archives.

Related books

Ruth Artmonsky, Austin Cooper: Master of the Poster (London: Artmonsky Arts, 2017)
Timothy Ray, Imponderable Joys: the Work of Austin Cooper, exh. cat. (Brandon: Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, 1993)
Herbert Read, Austin Cooper, exh. cat. (London: Gimpel Fils, 1960)
Austin Cooper, Making a Poster (London: the Studio, 1939)

Public collections

Related organisations

Allan-Frazer College of Art (student)
Cardiff School of Art (student)
City and Guilds School of Art (student)
Reimann School, London (Principal)

Selected exhibitions

The Art of the Ocean Liner Travel Poster (group show), V&A, London (2018)
Imponderable Joys: the Work of Austin Cooper (solo exhibition), Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon (1993)
Austin Cooper (solo exhibition), London Gallery, London (1948)
Austin Cooper (solo exhibition), Gimpel Fils, London (1955 and 1960)
Galerie Craven, Paris (date unconfirmed)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Austin Cooper]