Hans Coper (1920 - 1981)

Potter

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Born 1920, Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany. Potter, active mainly in the UK in the latter half of the 20th century. As his father was Jewish, he fled alone to England at the age of 19. After the war, he met the potter Lucy Lee (1902-1995), also an exile, and began making ceramics under her.

In contrast to the mainstream heavy style of her time, which emphasized traditional elements from the East and West, Coper's work was more urban, with a strong relationship to sculpture and architecture. His work is characterized by a technique of joining together multiple parts moulded on the wheel.

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1920　April 8th, Hans Coper was born in  Chemnitz, Germany, a few miles from the Czechoslovakian border.

1933　Hans’s family moved to Dresden because his father, Julius, was Jewish.

1937　Hans managed to enroll for training in textile engineering at a technical school in Dresden and studied there until he emigrated at England in early 1939.

1939　Immigrated to England

1940　Hans was arrested on May 12th ,1940, and sent to an interment camp in Huyton, in Lancashire.

　　　After 5 weeks in the camp, he was embarked on  a troop-carrying ship, bound for another interment camp in Canada.

1941　Hans volunteered Pioneer Corps of British Army, he desires to be sent in back to England. On June he went across the Atlantic again.

1943　Getting his health worse due to the army jobs, he was discharged the Pioneer Corps.

1946　Hans met Lucie Rie and begins work at Albion Mews Pottery.

1950　Hans Coper shared exhibition with Lucie and figurine sculptor Audrey Blackman at Berkeley Gallery.

1952　Hans delegated with Lucie Rie at the international Craftsman Conference in Pottery and Textiles at Dartington Hall, Devon.

1953　Shared exhibition with Lucie Rie at Berkeley Gallery. From this time, they hold many shared exhibitions.

1954　Hans won gold medal at Triennale di Milano

1958　Becomes nationalized british subject. First solo exhibition in England, at Primavera, Sloane Street, London, with over a hundred pieces.

1966　Begins to teach at the Royal College of Art as a once-a-week lecturer. (~ 1975)

1975　Given a diagnosis of ALS. Had already becomes even difficult to make conversation.

1980　Held the sixtieth birthday exhibition “Hans Coper” at Hetjens Museum, Dusseldorf, Germany. The last firing of his pieces. He burned all the writings during two years.

1981　Died at his home in Frome on June 16th.