Eileen Cooper Sculpture on Display Alongside Picasso Ceramics

A Major Influence

'Witness II' by Eileen Cooper can now be seen on display in the Picasso Ceramics Gallery at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery.

Purchased from the artist with assistance from the Art Fund, the ACE/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the City of Leicester Museums Trust, 2023

This ceramic was recently purchased for the museum's permanent collection with grant funding. It follows on from the hugely successful exhibition 'Parallel Lines: Eileen Cooper and Leicester's Art Collection' held at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery in 2022.

"Picasso has been a major influence on me all my creative life. Firstly, at the age of 20, I discovered his painting, then his incredible output in both printmaking and ceramics. The use of the figure, sexuality, the autobiographical and mythological imagery, all have had a profound influence on my work. Clay and paint are closely connected and the primal qualities of both are hugely significant for me. I received an AHRB (Arts and Humanities Research Board) grant to work on the project 'Ceramics from a Fine Artist around 1999-2000 and the Witness series was part of that work. I was assisted by ceramicist Annie Turner to whom I am incredibly grateful".

Eileen Cooper, writing in February 2023 about Picasso's influence and her work with ceramics