Biography
- 1945 - Born Perthshire
- 1963-68 - Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee
- 1972-82 - Lecturer in sculpture, Nene College, Northampton
- 1982-90 - Lecturer in sculpture, Grays School of Art, Aberdeen
- 1984 - Elected Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy
- 1991 - Essex Fine Art Scholarship
- 1992 - Wingate Scholarship
- 1992-98 - Visiting lecturer Edinburgh University; Glasgow School of Art; Grays School of Art, Aberdeen; Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee
- 2001 - Ballinglen Art Foundation Scholarship, Mayo, Ireland
- 2002 - Gozo Contemporary Residency, Malta
- 2003 - Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dalsasen Residency, Norway
One Man Exhibitions
- 1969 - New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh
- 1975 - Northampton Art Gallery
- 1977 - Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
- 1978 - Air Gallery, London
- 1981 - Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Huntly
- 1982 - Spectro Arts Workshop, Newcastle
- 1982 - Compass Gallery, Glasgow
- 1984 - Artspace, Aberdeen
- 1986 - Third Eye Centre, Glasgow
- 1989 - Artsite, Bath
- 1989 - Crawford Art Centre, St. Andrews
- 1990 - Woodlands Gallery, Blackheath
- 1990 - Aberdeen Art Gallery
- 1992 - Peacock Printmakers, Aberdeen
- 1992 - Chelmsford Cathedral Festival
- 1995 - Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
- 1995 - Perth Museum and Art Gallery
- 1996 - Joan Hughson Gallery, Glasgow
- 2000 - Pentagon Centre, Glasgow
- 2002 - Foyer, Aberdeen
- 2002 - The Weem, Pittenweem
- 2003 - John David Mooney Foundation, Chicago
- 2004 - Frames Gallery, Perth
- 2006 - Friends' Gallery, RSA
- 2006 - Mackintosh Gallery, Glasgow School of Art
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 1977 - On Site, Arnolfini, Bristol
- 1979-80 - British Art Show, Arts Council of Great Britain touring exhibition
- 1980 - Nature As Material, Arts Council of Great Britain touring exhibition
- 1981 - Art and the Sea, touring exhibition
- 1981-85 - Scottish Sculpture Open, Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire
- 1983 - Built in Scotland, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, touring exhibition
- 1983 - Views and Horizons, Yorkshire Sculpture Park
- 1984 - Graeme Murray Gallery at the Serpentine, Serpentine Gallery, London
- 1985 - Attitudes, Guildhall Gallery, Northampton
- 1985 - The Art of Thinking, Artspace, Aberdeen
- 1986 - Landscape Sculpture, Axiom Gallery, Cheltenham
- 1986 - The Unpainted Landscape, Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition
- 1988 - Collegium Artisticum Sculpture Symposium, Sarajevo
- 1988 - New Sculpture in Scotland, Cramond Sculpture Park, Edinburgh
- 1988 - Glasgow Garden Festival
- 1989 - Natural Art, McManus Galleries, Dundee
- 1989 - Scottish Art Since 1900, National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and the Barbican, London
- 1989 - Scottish Connection, Cramond Sculpture Park, Edinburgh and Feeringbury Manor, Essex
- 1989 - 4 on Tour, Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition
- 1991 - Virtue and Vision, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
- 1991 - Scottish Art in the 20th Century, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
- 1993 - Scottish Sculpture Open 7, invited artist
- 1993 - Galerije Grada, Zagreb
- 1994 - Manoa Art Gallery, university of Hawaii, touring exhibition
- 1994 - Scandex, touring exhibition
- 1994 - 9 Scottish Scupltors, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh Festival
- 1995 - Celtic Connections, International Concert Hall, Glasgow and the Seagate Centre, Dundee
- 1995 - Taking Form, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
- 1996 - Chelsea Harbour Sculpture '96
- 1996 - Catch The Moments As They Fly, Gracefield, Dumfries
- 1996 - We Got Rhythm, Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow
- 1996 - Peacock 21, Aberdeen Art Gallery
- 1997 - A Scottish Collection, Berwick Gymnasium Gallery
- 1997 - Scottish Sculpture Open, Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire
- 1998 - The Big Picture Show, City Art Centre, Edinburgh
- 1998 - Transistors, Morioko Hashimoto Museum of Art, Japan
- 1999 - Transistors, Royal Museum, Edinburgh
- 1999 - Trondheim Biennalen, Norway
- 1999 - Festival Exhibition, RSA Edinburgh
- 1999 - Artpark, House For An Art Lover, Glasgow
- 1999 - Expressions: Scottish Art 1976-1989, Aberdeen Art Gallery, McManus and DCA, Dundee
- 1999 - Sculpture, an Abbey and a Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral and Malmesbury Abbey
- 1999 - Connections 2000, Festival Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh
- 1999 - RGI Glasgow, invited artist
- 1999 - Sum of Parts, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
- 2000 - The Road To Meikle Seggie, City Art Centre, Edinburgh and The Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston-Upon-Thames
- 2001 - Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow
- 2002 - Beyond Conflict, Richard Demarco, Edinburgh
- 2002 - Richmond Hill Gallery, Richmond
- 2002 - Bridge Gallery, Dublin
- 2002 - Arandean Gallery, London
- 2002 - Anderson Gallery, Oxford
- 2006 - Parallel Paths, RSA - 2 person with Ronald Forbes
Awards
- 1967 - RSA Andrew Carnegie Travelling Scholarship
- 1967 - RSA Benno Schotz Prize
- 1969 - Greenshields Foundation Fellowship
- 1970 - RSA Latimer Award
- 1977 - Arts Council of Great Britain Award
- 1979 - East Midlands Arts Award
- 1989 - Scottish Arts Council Bursary
- 1997-98 - Scottish Arts Council - Visual Artists Award
- 2001 - RSA Gillies Award
- 2004 - Scottish Arts Council - Creative Scotland Award
Commissions
- 1987 - Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow
- 1988 - City of Dundee
- 1988 - Woodland Trust, Cambridgeshire
- 1989 - Mobil UK Headquarters, Aberdeen
- 1989 - Peterborough Development Corporation
- 1990 - Atlantic House, Cardiff
- 1990 - Kirkcaldy District Council
- 1990 - Black Country Development Corporation, Birmingham
- 1991 - Glasgow Milestone, Drumchapel
- 1991 - Essex County Council, University of Essex
- 1993 - University of Glamorgan
- 1994 - Staffordshire County Council
- 1994 - Kent County Council
- 1995 - Kyle and Carrick District Council
- 1995 - Perthshire Public Art Trust
- 1995 - Tyrebagger Sculpture Project, Aberdeen
- 1996 - Carley Hill School, Sunderland
- 1996 - Sunderland Enterprise Park
- 1996 - Sustrans Scotland, Caldercrux
- 1996 - Dr Grays Hospital, Elgin
- 1996 - Motherwell District Council
- 1997 - Ben Lomond Memorial, Rowardennan
- 1997 - Western Access Route, Stirling, Central Regional Council
- 1997 - Galloway Forest Park, Forest Enterprise
- 1997 - Sunderland Enterprise Park
- 1997 - Scottish Equitable, Edinburgh
- 1997 - Hamilton Town Centre Redevelopment
- 1998 - Perth Sculpture Trail, Perthshire Public Art Trust
- 1998 - University of Abertay, Dundee
- 1999 - Dance Base, Edinburgh
- 1999 - Eastern and Western Gateways, Elgin
- 1999 - Gateway Commission, Castlemilk
- 2000 - Scottish Equitable, Edinburgh
- 2002 - Lemon Quay, Truro
- 2002 - Edinburgh C.C., Niddrie Mains
- 2003 - Fortrose Academy, Black Isle
- 2004 - River Tyne Oral Histories, Gateshead
- 2004 - Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead
- 2005 - Quatercentenary Commemorative Sculpture, Glasgow C.C.
- 2006 - Western Approach, Dundee. Scottish Enterprise Tayside
Public Collections
- Arts Council of Great Britain
- Scottish Arts Council
- Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum
- Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow
- Greenshields Foundation, Montreal
- Worcester College of Education
- King Alfred's College, Winchester
- Perthshire Education Authority
- Fife Education Authority
- Peterborough Art Gallery
- Essex County Council
- BBC Scotland
- Royal Scottish Academy Collection
- Northampton Art Gallery
- Kirkcaldy Art Gallery
- Perth Art Gallery
- The Scottish Office, Edinburgh
- City of Edinburgh Council
- The Ballinglen Archive, County Mayo
- Scottish Hospitals Collection
Selected Works 104
The Critics… 4
In a sense, the individual pieces, formed with the hand of a craftsman and the eye of an artist, are a metaphor for Cocker's whole approach to creating sequences of work - each element is resolved in its own terms and yet performs a crucial and often pivotal role in relation to something outside itself. It is easy to overlook the understated panache that lies behind the manner in which Cocker can find magisterial balances of form, tone and - in his most recent pieces of wood construction - colour.
Over the last ten years Doug Cocker has found his own individual voice where he can, when appropriate, use his distinctive sculptural expression to address important contemporary social experience. Like the work of the best of his peers, such as Cragg and Woodrow, Cocker's sculpture is political in the broadest sense of the word. By that I mean that it is not escapist, esoteric or purely aesthetic, but aims to raise awareness of the underlying contradictions in late Twentieth century capitalist society. For example, in an earlier work of the mid-eighties Beneath the Screaming Eagle, the ultimate symbol of material status and security - the house, is enclosed from above by an encirling barrier that throwes a protective, but ominously imprisoning shadow on all below. In this very powerful piece, Cocker echoes the dire warnings of Noam Chomsky that we put our trust in false gods to secure us from our worst nightmares, only to find that they heighten our sense of insecurity and further imprison us in our increased fearful state. Many of these works also have a strong satirical edge to them. For example, the artist employs bathos to underline the vacuousness of much political rhetoric - where the visual and the verbal mock each other. This is most acutely observed in one of Cocker's major works, State of the Nation, where hollow chauvinism in underlined by the unstable rocking-horse base on which the classical temple of social order and national pride is precariously placed.
Drawing, for Cocker, is very close to the surrealist's practice of automatism, where the artist freely allows forms and images to body forth onto the page with little or no rational restraint or control. These spontaneous sketches are the testing ground where he rejects or begins to develop his ideas for possible sculptures. In the most convincing of Cocker's work this flexibility is continued right through to the finished piece and it's enigmatic title. The power of his most successful sculptures lies in their truly metamorhic nature, which keeps their shifting significance and allusive meaning continually open to interpretation.
He caught, don't ask me how, but ponder on it, the weather, in boxes black, rich as deepest night. Here the spikes of the nail-sharp rain, the dangerous zigzagging of lightening hurtling across the sky, the fleet-of-foot wisp-thin clouds, the layered mystery of the changing river. Confined, yet they move. Colourless, yet the beech wood is riotous. Silent, yet they sing the landsongs.