The local art community has lost one of its founding fathers, painter Alexander Cooper. The 85-year-old died at midnight on Tuesday following a battle with bronchial pneumonia.

Speaking to the Jamaica Observer, his widow Ann noted that her memories of her time with her late husband is what will sustain her in the coming days and years.

“We had a beautiful life. I am just sitting here cherishing the memories I have of him… it makes me smile a lot as I reflect. But, there have been times when I just break down,” she shared.

Cooper had been a prime contributor to the local art scene for close to 60 years.

In a 2012 Observer interview, he shared that his talents were first recognised when he was repeatedly asked by his teachers to illustrate Bible stories. This was during his early days at Elletson Elementary School in east Kingston (now Vauxhall High). Along with the innate talent, it was that validation from teachers and the support and encouragement from family and friends that spurred a young Cooper to delve into the world of art because as he put it, “I did not even know who an artist was”.

This would lead him to the School of Art where Edna Manley, who has become the mother of the modern art movement, along with painter Ralph Campbell and master potter Cecil Baugh had begun to offer classes. The training he received here in Jamaica in those formative years would serve him in good stead when he moved to New York in 1963 to study at The Art Students League and the School of the Visual Arts. Upon his return to Jamaica in 1967, he set about continuing the work of Edna Manley and the pioneers and, along with fellow artist Osmond Watson began mounting exhibitions and passing on their knowledge at the School of Art and other institutions of learning, including Kingston College.

His work remains sought after by local and international art collectors.

— Richard Johnson