ABOUT THE TRUST

The John Coplans Trust located in Beacon, New York is dedicated to preserving and educating the public on the life, art, and legacy of John Coplans.

Born in London in 1920, John Coplans was a British artist, art writer, curator, and museum director. A veteran of World War II and a photographer, he emigrated to the United States in 1960. He was on the founding editorial staff of Artforum from 1962 to 1971, and was Editor-in-Chief from 1972 to 1977. His photographs have been the focus of numerous major exhibitions in Europe and North America.

The series of self portraits for which John Coplans is best know were made later in life after his careers as an art critic, museum director, and magazine editor. The black and white self-portraits are a frank study of the naked, aging body. He photographed his body from the base of his foot to the wrinkles on his hand. He never photographed his face. His images are not focused on a specific man nor identity, but rather, as an archetypal everyman.

In 1978, during his one-year appointment as head of the Akron Art Museum in Ohio, Coplans first began experimenting with photography. Here he took his initial nude photographs with a timer, but would not return to the idea until 1984, when he began a serious exploration into the self portraits with the help of an assistant. The poses were inspired by an intuitive connection to a pre-conscious, pre-lingual awareness of the body. “I don’t know how it happens, but when I pose for one of these photographs, I become immersed in the past...I am somewhere else, another person, or a woman in another life. At times, I’m in my youth."

His technique for making the photographs involved use of Polaroid positive/negative 4x5 film, so that he could quickly see the result of the poses and make immediate adjustments. He later used a video camera connected to a television monitor to see the back of the 4x5 camera for an even more immediate mirror effect. Although this technique deepened his control and accuracy, it is of note that he claimed to possess a sense of pre-determined clarity about the poses.

His photographs ultimately question the taboo of age through the provocative and direct style of addressing his body. Said Coplans: “I have the feeling that I’m alive, I have a body. I’m seventy years old, and generally the bodies of seventy-year old men look somewhat like my body. It's a neglected subject matter...So, I’m using my body and saying, even though it's a seventy year old body, I can make it interesting. This keeps me alive and gives me vitality. It's a kind of process of energizing myself by my belief that the classical tradition of art that we’ve inherited from the Greeks is a load of bullshit.” (1994).

The Trust is an international gallery liaison for Coplans exhibitions and art fairs, as well as the contact for all reproduction requests.

Please email us at johncoplanstrust@gmail.com for all reproduction requests.

The Trustee is Amanda Means.