Barrie Cooke

Born in Cheshire, Cooke studied Art History at Harvard University, and continued his education at Skowhegan and Kokoschka’s School of Seeing in Salzburg. Moving to Ireland in 1954, he developed a lifelong love of the landscape. His particular interest in the central role of death, change and decay in Nature informed much of his oil painting, many of which feature diseased animals, bones and carcasses. He exhibited regularly both in Ireland and abroad, and is represented in many public and private collections. Cooke incorporated sculptural elements of various kinds into many of his works, including the Sheela-na-gig series. A member of Aosdána, he was afforded major retrospectives at the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1986 and at the RHA in 1995. He also exhibited at IMMA in 2008.