Barrie Cook is 71, his work was recently shown at the the Tate Britain, to celebrate his seventieth birthday. He occupies a distinctive position within British art because he has maintained an almost unbroken alliance to spray-painting for the past forty years. His achievement has established this method of working as a legitimate, versatile mode of expression in a Fine Art context. Cook has influenced many ambitious students of painting with his enormous canvases, often enveloping the viewers field of vision. These paintings required large public viewing spaces, such as solo exhibitions at the Camden Arts Centre (twice) the Whitechapel and Serpentine Galleries and an impressive retrospective exhibition at the Concorde Gallery, Barbican Centre 1995. The early work favoured dark columns mainly black and indian red. The stark uncompromising vertical forms were interwoven with moody horizontal bars. They conveyed a timeless claustrophobia hinting at the decline of the heavy manufacturing industry and the polluted environment of industrial Britain. This work brought him considerable critical acclaim and many National Prizes.

Cook’s ambition is to create a truly holistic work with a physical presence, at the same time offering a sensuous transcendent vehicle for meditation. His strategy for doing this is to offer a formal geometric structure which is coolly abstract then developing colour combinations of unique strength and subtlety which offer the paintings an inner glow as if lit from the back. There is dialogue between colour-form geometric fact; and an ambience which allows viewers to evoke some stirrings of their own subconscious. Cook’s personal advance has been his preparedness to risk inventive, close colour combinations to bring about a genuine visually holistic experiences.

Barrie Cook
'Silence Alone Is Appropriate'
acrylic on canvas
122x122cm
£4500

Barrie Cook
'Lizard Mutation'
acrylic on canvas
153x127cm
£6500

Barrie Cook
'Meniscus XIV'
acrylic on paper
56x46cm
Private Collection

Barrie Cook
'Painters Games III'
acrylic on paper
51x34cm
£650

Barrie Cook
'Spiritual Temple I'
acrylic on paper
36x41cm
Private Collection

Barrie Cook
'I Love You Too'
acrylic on paper
64x47cm
£600

Barrie Cook
Twin Souls
acrylic on canvas
12x24 inches
Private Collection

Barrie Cook
Silence Alone is Appropriate
acrylic on canvas
Private Collection

Barrie Cook
Mutual Attraction
acrylic on canvas
55x55cm
Private Collection

Barrie Cook
Bonded Couple
Acrylic on Paper
20 x 12 inches
£1100

Barrie Cook
Now III
Acrylic on Canvas
20 x 20 inches
£2000

Barrie Cook
Mutual Attraction
Acrylic on Canvas
20 x 24 inches
Private Collection

Barrie Cook
Lizard Moon
Acrylic on Canvas
12 x 12 inches
£1000

Barrie Cook
Coupling
Acrylic on Canvas
12 x 20 inches
£1000

Barrie Cook
Twin Spheres
72 x 38.5 inches
Acrylic on canvas
£7,500

Barrie Cook
Tangents II
36 x 36 inches
Acrylic on canvas
£4,500

Barrie Cook
Yellow Loves Blue
12 x 12 inches
Acrylic on canvas
£1,250

Barrie Cook
Black Series
15 x 12 inches
Acrylic on paper
£6,500

Barrie Cook
A Walk in the Park II
30 x 50 inches
Acrylic on antique paper
£4,500

Barrie Cook
Bonded Couple II
Acrylic on Paper
20 x 12 inches
£1100

Barrie Cook
Now
Acrylic on Canvas
22 x 22 inches
£2200

Barrie Cook
Compatibility
Acrylic on Canvas
73 x 66 inches
£9000