John Coplans facts for kids

John Rivers Coplans (born June 24, 1920 – died August 21, 2003) was a British artist, writer about art, and a director of museums. He fought in World War II and later became a photographer. In 1960, he moved to the United States. His artwork was shown in many exhibitions across Europe and North America. He was part of the first team that started the magazine Artforum in 1962. He worked there until 1971 and was the main editor from 1972 to 1977.

Early Life and War Service

John Coplans was born in London in 1920. His father, Joseph Moses Coplans, was a doctor with many talents in science and art. When John was a baby, his father moved to Johannesburg, South Africa. John joined him there at age two. For a few years, his family moved between London and South Africa. They finally settled in a seaside town near Cape Town until 1930.

Even with these moves, John greatly admired his father. His father took him to art galleries on weekends. He taught John to love exploring and trying new things. This made John very curious about the world.

In 1937, John Coplans returned to England from South Africa. When he was 18, he joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot officer. Two years later, his hearing was affected by a rugby match. So, he volunteered to join the army instead. Because he had lived in Africa as a child, he was sent to the King's African Rifles in East Africa. He led a group of soldiers, mostly in Ethiopia, until 1943. After that, his group was sent to Burma. In 1945, Coplans left the army and decided to become an artist.

Starting His Career

After leaving the army, Coplans moved to London. He lived at the Abbey Art Centre because he wanted to be an artist. The British government offered money to war veterans for education. He received a grant to study art. He tried studying at Goldsmiths and Chelsea College of the Arts. However, he found that art school was not for him. He painted part-time for people like Cecil Beaton. He also ran his own business, John Rivers Limited, which focused on interior decorating.

In the mid-1950s, Coplans started going to talks by Lawrence Alloway. These talks were at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. There, he learned about the new Pop Art movement. He became very involved in Pop Art as a writer and a curator. He saw important art shows like "Hard-Edged Painting" (1959) and "New American Painting" (1959). These shows made him even more passionate about Pop Art and American art.

During this time, he worked hard to find his own artistic style. He created abstract paintings that looked like tachism and Abstract Expressionism. These styles were made famous by American artists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Coplans later said these early paintings were "derivative," meaning they copied others. These paintings were shown at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1950. They were also shown later at the New Vision Center.

In 1960, Coplans sold everything he owned and moved to the United States. He first settled in San Francisco. He took a job at UC Berkeley as a visiting assistant design professor. There, he met Phil Leider, who would later become the editor of Artforum. Leider introduced Coplans to John Irwin, who wanted to start a magazine. Coplans convinced Irwin that the West Coast needed an art magazine. He said it should focus on important art that hadn't received much attention yet. He also suggested it be published in a square shape. This way, both tall and wide images would look equally good. This idea led to Artforum's famous shape and its successful start. Coplans wrote regularly for the magazine. He believed art writing should be easy for everyone to understand. He wanted to create excitement about new art. This helped to "start discussions and awareness," especially for artists on the West Coast.

Coplans felt torn between his painting and writing careers. He chose writing and spent the next 20 years on the magazine. He also worked as a curator and museum director. It wasn't until 1981, when he was 62, that he went back to being an artist.

His Art Style

'Back with Arms Above', black and white photograph by John Coplans, 1984

Coplans is famous for his black and white self-portraits. These photos are honest studies of his own body as it aged. He photographed parts of his body, from his feet to the wrinkles on his hands. He never photographed his face. This meant his pictures were not about one specific person or identity.

In 1980, Coplans was the head of the Akron Art Museum in Ohio for one year. During this time, he first started trying out photography. He took his first nude photos using a timer. But he didn't seriously explore this idea again until 1984. Then, he began a deep study of self-portraits with the help of an assistant. The poses he chose came from a natural feeling. He felt a connection to a very early, wordless understanding of the body. He said, "I don’t know how it happens, but when I pose for one of these photographs, I become immersed in the past...I am somewhere else, another person, or a woman in another life. At times, I’m in my youth.”

He used Polaroid 4x5 film to make his photos. This allowed him to see the results of his poses quickly. He could then make changes right away. Later, he used a video camera connected to a TV screen. This let him see what the camera was capturing even faster. This method gave him more control and accuracy. However, he said he already had a clear idea of the poses he wanted to create.

His photographs bravely explore the idea of aging. He directly showed his body as it was. Coplans explained, “I have the feeling that I’m alive, I have a body. I’m seventy years old, and generally the bodies of seventy-year old men look somewhat like my body. It's a neglected subject matter...So, I’m using my body and saying, even though it's a seventy year old body, I can make it interesting. This keeps me alive and gives me vitality.”

Exhibitions and Shows

John Coplans had many important solo exhibitions. These shows featured only his work. Some of the places his art was shown include:

• The Art Institute of Chicago (1981, 1989)
• The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1988)
• The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1988)
• The Centre George Pompidou, Paris (1994)
• P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (1997)
• Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (1999)
• Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (1999)

Working with Artforum

Coplans had a long connection with Artforum magazine. He was one of its first members in 1962. He wrote articles for it and was the main editor from 1971 to 1976. He moved with the magazine from Los Angeles to its permanent home in New York in 1967. In June 1971, he took over as chief editor.

His time as editor was a period of big changes for the magazine. Many of the original editorial team left. Coplans allowed for a wide range of art styles and ideas to be covered. This showed how art was changing and expanding at the time. He was dismissed from his role in December 1976.

Museum Work

From 1965 to 1967, Coplans was the director of the Art Gallery at the University of California at Irvine. As a senior curator at the Pasadena Art Museum (1967–1970), Coplans was one of the first to support Pop Art. He wrote very positively about the work of Roy Lichtenstein and especially Andy Warhol.

Coplans started a series of exhibitions in a small gallery at the old Pasadena Art Museum. These shows featured artists from the West Coast. Some of these artists included Dewain Valentine, Doug Wheeler, James Turrell, Robert Irwin, Wayne Thiebaud, and Judy Chicago. For many of these artists, like Lichtenstein, these were their very first important exhibitions. Many of the essays written for these exhibition catalogs were also published in Artforum. This brought attention to these West Coast artists in New York.

In 1968, Coplans became the acting director of the Pasadena Art Museum. He organized the "Serial Imagery" show. He left the museum in 1970 and moved to New York in 1971. Before he left, he also curated another big Warhol exhibition and a Richard Serra show.

He became director of the Akron Art Museum in Ohio in February 1978. He left in December 1979 due to a disagreement with the museum's board. During his time there, he brought many exhibitions from New York to Akron. He helped the museum focus on photography and art from the 19th century onwards. He also led efforts to raise money for a new museum building. This new building would use the old 1899 Post Office Building in downtown Akron. This short period was also important for Coplans personally. He bought cameras, set up a darkroom, and began his own photography work. He started by trying to copy photographers he admired, like Lee Friedlander. He moved back to New York City in February 1980.

Museum Collections

John Coplans' photographs are part of over sixty museum collections around the world. Some of these collections include:

Awards and Honors

John Coplans received several important awards and honors:

• Guggenheim Fellowship (twice: 1981, 1985)
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (twice: 1981, 1986)
• Distinguished Visiting Professor, American University of Cairo (1983)
• Richard Koopman Distinguished Chair, University of Hartford (1991)
• Officer de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2001) - This is a French award for contributions to the arts.

Personal Life

John Coplans had a daughter, Dr. Barbara Ann Rivers Coplans, with his first wife, Betty Coplans. She was born in East Africa. He also had a son, Joseph John Coplans, with his third wife, Carolyn Coplans. Joseph was born in California, USA. His fourth wife was New York photographer Amanda Means. She is now in charge of the John Coplans Trust.