To mark Cohen’s centenary in 2020, the Foundation, in collaboration with Ben Uri Exhibitions, is publishing a book to accompany the programme of exhibitions and events.
Alfred Cohen: An American Artist in Europe
Between Figuration and Abstraction
is available at all the exhibition venues, from Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, and from ACC Art Books online.
Alfred Cohen: An American Artist in Europe charts the main phases of his career. It highlights how his paintings were in constant dialogue with several key modern art movements, and the radical evolution in his style that resulted in this powerful body of distinctive pictures.
Co-edited by Max Saunders and Sarah MacDougall, and with over 180 illustrations, this first full overview of Alfred Cohen’s career and achievements combines an extended biographical account with analytical and interpretative approaches to his paintings and drawings, locating him among his historical and contemporary peers. It shows new generations of curators, art historians, artists, critics and writers reassessing and finding inspiration in his diverse and engaging work.
Contributors include Paul Greenhalgh (Director, Sainsbury Centre), David Peters Corbett (Courtauld Institute of Art), Devorah Baum, TV producer and journalist David Herman, Rachel Dickson (Ben Uri), broadcaster Jacky Klein, Claudia Milburn (Pallant House), Hope Wolf (University of Sussex) Philip Vann, and John Berger’s editor and biographer Tom Overton.
Max Saunders is Professor of English and Co-Director of the Centre for Life-Writing Research at King’s College London, where he was Director of the Arts and Humanities Research Institute. In 2019 he became Interdisciplinary Professor of Modern Literature and Culture at the University of Birmingham.
Sarah MacDougall is Head of Collections and the Ben Uri Research Unit for the Study of the Jewish and immigrant Contribution to the Visual Arts in Britain since 1900, based at Ben Uri Gallery and Museum.