Biography
Peter Coker RA (b. London 1926 - d. 2004) studied at St Martin's School of Art (1941-1943) before enlisting in the Fleet Air Arm (1943-1946) during World War II. After the war, he returned to St Martin's School of Art (1947-1949) before moving to the Royal College of Art (1950-1954), where he won a Royal Scholarship in 1951 and a British Institution Scholarship in 1953. He studied with Jack Smith, John Bratby, Derek Greaves and Edward Middleditch, who became known as the Kitchen Sink School, a term coined by the art critic David Sylvester (1924-2001) in response to their unique brand of realism inspired by everyday domestic life in post-war Britain. Coker had his first exhibition in 1956 at the Zwemmer Gallery which was discussed on the BBC Critics, and in 1957 and 1959. He also exhibited at English Artists exhibition Jordan Galleries, Toronto in 1957. Coker returned to St Martin's to teach painting (1954-1973) and then he taught at the City and Guilds of London Art School (1973-1985).
Coker began painting gritty scenes in an unsentimental, realist manner, as visible in his series of paintings of animal carcasses inspired by a butcher's shop near his home in Leytonstone. However, he was inspired by the French realist Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) while visiting Paris in 1950 and began to paint landscapes from nature in Normandy and Brittany. He continued to use bold colours in his landscapes, using thickly impasted paint to capture the power of natural forces. He also painted in Devon, Cornwall, Essex and, towards the end of his life, in northwest Scotland. Coker published a book, Etching Techniques, in 1976. He became an Associate of the Royal College of Art in 1953, was elected a Royal Academician in 1972, and won an Arts Council Award in 1976.
