Self-Portrait (Hands holding feet)
Maker
Coplans, John
(British, 1920-2003)
Date1985
MediumGelatin silver print
Dimensionsimage: 3 1/2 in x 4 1/2 in; mat: 20 in x 16 in; paper: 4 in x 5 1/4 in
Credit LineGift of Dennis Oppenheim
Object number1999:326
Collections
Born in London in 1920, John Coplans was educated in South Africa and England. After immigrating to the United States in 1960, he began teaching at the University of California at Berkeley. Coplans was the founding editor of Artforum magazine. He worked as the senior curator of the Pasadena Art Museum from 1967 to 1970 and as the director of the Akron Art Museum in 1978. He published numerous articles of art criticism, and his books include Weegee: Tater und Opfer (1978), Ellsworth Kelly (1973), Roy Lichtenstein (1972), Andy Warhol (1970), Serial Imagery (1968), and Cezanne Watercolors (1967). Coplan’s extremely close-up nude self-portraits have been exhibited at numerous institutions worldwide. He received the Frank Jewitt Mather Award of the College Art Association for services to art criticism in 1974; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships in 1969 and 1985; and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1975, 1980, 1986, and 1992.
Coplans, John. Hand: Self Portraits. New York: Galerie Lelong, 1988.
Coplans, John.; Mesina, Editha.; Coplans, Joseph. Foot: Self Portraits. New York: Galerie Lelong, 1989.
Coplans, John. John Coplans: Self Portrait Frieze. Paris: Paul Bianchini, Galerie Toner, 1994.
Coplans, John.; Chevrier, Jean-François. A Self-Portrait: John Coplans, 1984-1997. Long Island City, N.Y.: New York: P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center; D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, 1997.
Coplans, John. A Body. Publication: New York, NY: PowerHouse Books, 2002.
Coplans, John. Body Parts: A Self-Portrait. New York: PowerHouse Books, 2003.
