Choose a mood and the room itself answers — the light cools or warms, the air changes pace, and only the works that carry that feeling step forward from the dark. Everything else recedes into shadow.
John Coplans: A Pioneer of Stark Portraiture and Pop Art Criticism John Wesley Cope, born in London in 1920, was a British artist, art writer, curator, and museum director whose career spanned decades of artistic exploration and critical engagement with the burgeoning pop art movement. His formative years were marked by an unconventional upbringing – his father, Joseph Moses Coplans, a medical doctor and polymath, emigrated to Johannes
burg shortly after John’s birth, creating a transient childhood between London and South Africa until 1930. Despite this instability, Cope developed an unwavering admiration for his father, who instilled within him a profound appreciation for artistic pursuits and a lifelong fascination with the world around him, taking him on weekend gallery visits and fostering intellectual curiosity. A pivotal moment arrived in 1937 when Cope embar…