Emmanuel Cooper began his career in the 1960s ‘driven by a strong imperative to make tableware, accepting the Leachian/Morris idea that it carried a sort of virtue’. However after he stopped making tableware in the mid 1980s - his gallery pots - like Yolk II - always retained a resonance of function. His gallery pieces - even at their most extraordinary - like his stoneware bowl and jug forms with their multi fired volcanic glaze - or the vivid colours and spot decoration on his porcelain pieces - are rooted in function.

Cooper was always an urban potter. In the early 1960s when he started out, he wanted - and needed - the security, support and excitement of the urban gay subculture. Once in the city he immediately wanted his tableware to reflect the urban environment and not look as if it was produced in some rural idyll. Therefore in the design and glazes for his tableware he looked not to the browns of the Leach tradition but to the clean lines and light colours of north European design models. When he stopped making tableware - his gallery pots continued to pay homage to the built environment. Cooper was fascinated by the textures and tempos of the metropolis, the volcanic surfaces of his stoneware bowls and jugs inspired by the concrete and grit of the pavements while his porcelain bowls with their vivid venetian reds, emerald green or glorious yellow pay homage to the neon lights and traffic of the night time city.

Equally, his now legendary reputation concerning glazes for the electric kiln was a direct result of his desire to be in the city. With only a small basement workshop, Emmanuel was unable to fire to reduction and consequently spent almost two decades researching into electric kiln firing in an attempt to create what he later referred to as an 'electric kiln aesthetic’. The research resulted in four best selling books, which have given him legendary status as a glaze technician. It was a mark of his importance in this field that he was later invited by the V&A to produce the glaze tests that formed part of their permanent displays devoted to the ceramic process.

Courtesy of David Horbury