Cook Christopher

Christopher Cook was born in North Yorkshire, England and studied at the Royal College of Art in London. He then took up an Italian Government scholarship for three years to work in Bologna. His colour paintings of this period featured in high-profile exhibitions such as From Bacon to Now at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and Eros in Albion at the Casa Masaccio, as well as in solo shows in London, including at Camden Arts Centre.

Two years spent in India changed his approach to painting from one of western composition and notation (and colour) to a more haptic, intimate practice in which sand drawings made in Varanasi inspired his switch to monochrome graphite. These ‘graphites’ (as he terms them) were quickly exhibited internationally, especially in the USA, where they became part of major collections such as the Metropolitan Museum New York, Minneapolis Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art and Yale Centre for British Art, and in the UK in the British Museum and Fitzwilliam Museum. The ‘graphites’ have also been awarded several major painting prizes,including the prestigious John Moores Liverpool, Jackson’s Painting Prize in the UK, and the UK Sunny Art Prize. Notable solo shows include those at Towner Gallery Eastbourne, Ferens Gallery Hull and recently at York Art Gallery (2020) in which his anti-colonialist mediations of Dutch 17th century Still Life painting were exhibited among old masters from collections including the National Gallery London.

The still life theme persisted during his time spent in Taiwan and is visible in several works, especially in those involving a Ming vase that Cook studied in the National Palace Museum, which he uses in manner comparable to the use of Chinese porcelain in 17th Dutch century Still Life.

Cook is also recognized as a scholar and art critic. He has contributed many articles to art magazines and artist catalogues during his career. He has also lectured widely and taught or served as a visiting scholar at institutions such as the University of Plymouth, UK; the Exeter College of Art and Design, UK; the University of Oxford, UK; the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany; the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Netherlands; and California State University, Long Beach, USA.