Alexander Cooper: Painting 50 Years - Then and Now

It was a gushing Alexander Cooper that The Sunday Gleaner found last Tuesday as he prepared to mount his most recent exhibition at the Mutual Gallery in St Andrew.

It's not that Cooper hasn't done this umpteen times before. But, for the master painter, this one is special as it showcases Jamaica's 50th anniversary of Independence and his 50 years at the easel.

Titled '50 Years - Then and Now', Cooper said patrons could expect an "exciting exhibition" that transports them through a time capsule at the show which runs from August 16 to September 7.

According to him, the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries have been masterfully weaved into the body of work, the first capturing, for example the historical reading of the Emancipation proclamation at King's House in the Old Capital.

His 19th-century paintings chronicle what the painter claims he "came and saw" such as the tram car and buggy, which later gave way to articulate buses.

The 20th century captures the changing face of Jamaica's landscape such as 'The Reconstruction of the Palisadoes Airport Road'. Inescapable, too, is the infectious culture of the Jamaican people as seen in the 'Evolution of our Dance; From the Waltz to the Bubbling'.

Calling the exhibition he mounted a year ago a "warm-up exercise", Cooper told The Sunday Gleaner he had immersed himself in this one, putting in "a good amount of research" and placing himself in the scenes.

Cooper's work colours many walls - the Mutual Gallery, the Pegasus Gallery, and countless others, as well as homes and offices. His work has also been commissioned for major events internationally.

Cooper got his formal training from the Jamaica School of Art, now the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, the Art Students' League, and the School of Visual Arts in New York.

'50 Years - Then and Now' is being backed by National Commercial Bank, Super Plus Food Stores, Carreras Group of Companies, Ideal Portfolio Services Company, RBC Royal Bank, JN General Insurance, Island Mist Spring Water, British Caribbean Insurance Company, Wray and Nephew, and Kool 97 FM.