	Hans COPER Dates: 1920-1981 Born in Germany he trained as an engineer before leaving for England in 1939. Following a period of internment and the Pioneer Corps during the War, he joined Lucie Rie in her London studio in 1946. Initially he made press moulded buttons and tableware, but soon developed his own sculptural vessel forms. Like Lucie Rie, with whom he continued to work closely, his ceramics demonstrated a modernist aesthetic and rejected any reference to traditional craft pottery or oriental ceramics. The complex and austere works are constructed of thrown and assembled elements with matt textured surfaces. They are coloured with oxides and slips in neutral blacks, creams and greys. In the 1960s he produced a number of commissions, including the giant candlesticks for the altar of the new Coventry Cathedral. Between 1963 and 1975 he was an influential teacher at both Camberwell School of Art and Royal College of Art. From 1967 until his death he lived in Somerset. He is recognised as one of the most revered and important potters of the 20th century.

Hans COPER

Dates: 1920-1981

Born in Germany he trained as an engineer before leaving for England in 1939. Following a period of internment and the Pioneer Corps during the War, he joined Lucie Rie in her London studio in 1946. Initially he made press moulded buttons and tableware, but soon developed his own sculptural vessel forms. Like Lucie Rie, with whom he continued to work closely, his ceramics demonstrated a modernist aesthetic and rejected any reference to traditional craft pottery or oriental ceramics. The complex and austere works are constructed of thrown and assembled elements with matt textured surfaces. They are coloured with oxides and slips in neutral blacks, creams and greys. In the 1960s he produced a number of commissions, including the giant candlesticks for the altar of the new Coventry Cathedral. Between 1963 and 1975 he was an influential teacher at both Camberwell School of Art and Royal College of Art. From 1967 until his death he lived in Somerset. He is recognised as one of the most revered and important potters of the 20th century.