The View from Permeke’s Studio , 1974
61 x 71.1 cm (h x w)
Oil on canvas

Arts Council England
© Estate of Alfred Cohen 2020

In the early 1970s the Cohens visited the museum in Belgium at the last house of Constant Permeke, the leading Flemish expressionist painter. This picture contains recognisable elements: a church, human figures, a windmill, trees; yet the red sky takes up around three quarters of the composition and the red is so intense that it challenges realism. Here, the title ‘frames’ the way we view the painting, suggesting the frame is the studio window. But if the view from Permeke’s studio is the landscape he looked out at, it’s also the way he viewed it; his way of seeing things. Curiously, the band along the horizon seems more representational than the green foreground or red sky. Without it, the mood is De Staël or even Rothko. But Cohen characteristically leaves it in; he wants to see what’s being abstracted from. How you get from cow field to colour field. Which is to say that while this picture may be exploring the influence of artists who inspired him, it’s also about fending them off, and staking out his own individuality as a painter: saying that when he looked at Permeke’s landscape, he wanted to paint it in his own way.

Exhibited by:

Ben Uri Research Unit

Other works by Alfred Cohen (1920-2001)

The Draughtsman , 1998
31.8 x 37.5 cm (h x w)
Assemblage
Ben Uri Research Unit
Cherbourg 1949 , c. 1999
33 x 31.8 cm (h x w)
Assemblage: wood, brass porthole, glass, and mixed media
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Catia’s Terrace , 1991
55.9 x 63.5 cm (h x w)
Oil on canvas
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The Best Room , 1991
50.8 x 61 cm (h x w)
Oil on board
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Norfolk Coast – Sunset , c. 1991
14 x 21.6 cm (h x w)
casein on paper
Ben Uri Research Unit

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