Cohen, Harold

views updated

COHEN, HAROLD

COHEN, HAROLD (1928– ), British painter. Harold Cohen was born in London and studied and later taught at the Slade School of Art. He represented Britain at the 1966 Venice Bien-nale with his brother Bernard *Cohen (1933– ), with whom he shared a distinctive style, as both were influenced by traditional European expressionism and later American abstract expressionism. He designed the Ark curtains for the synagogue of Jews' College, London. In later years he lived in America and was involved, with considerable international publicity, in using computers to simulate human drawing. Bernard Cohen was also born in London and educated at the Slade School. From 1988 he was Slade Professor of Fine Art at London University and also director of the Slade School. A highly regarded abstract expressionist, he frequently exhibited in Britain and America.

bibliography:

Friedmann, in: Arts Magazine (Feb. 1965), 34–40; Russell, in: Art News (Summer 1965), 48–49; Thompson, in: Studio International (June 1966), 233–45. add. bibliography: P. McCorduck, Aaron's Code: Meta-Art, Artificial Intelligence, and the Work of Harold Cohen (1991).

[Charles Samuel Spencer /

William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]