Adrian Clark has published extensively on various British artists and is the author of a biography of John Rothenstein, director (1938–64) of the Tate Gallery, and Cooper’s bête noire. He also co-wrote, with Jeremy Dronfield, a biography of the collector and financier of Horizon magazine, Peter Watson.  Richard Calvocoressi is a senior curator at Gagosian in London. He was previously director of the Henry Moore Foundation and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, where he acquired masterpieces from the collection of Cooper’s rival, Sir Roland Penrose. He has published on numerous artists, including Oskar Kokoschka, Paul Klee, Lee Miller, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Georg Baselitz, and Anselm Kiefer.

“In their deeply researched biography, Adrian Clark and Richard Calvocoressi do not dispute what they call the ‘terrible baseline’ of Cooper’s personality. If anything, they amplify it. Yet in their exhaustive, three-part account of Cooper’s life . . . they aim to resurrect another Cooper as well.”—Hugh Eakin, Wall Street JournalShortlisted for Apollo Book of the Year 2025“The detail through which [Cooper’s life] is traced is impressive, even if, as described, the subject’s character often appals.”—Matthew Gale, Art NewspaperLonglisted for The Berger Prize 2026

Adrian Clark has published extensively on various British artists and is the author of a biography of John Rothenstein, director (1938–64) of the Tate Gallery, and Cooper’s bête noire. He also co-wrote, with Jeremy Dronfield, a biography of the collector and financier of Horizon magazine, Peter Watson.  Richard Calvocoressi is a senior curator at Gagosian in London. He was previously director of the Henry Moore Foundation and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, where he acquired masterpieces from the collection of Cooper’s rival, Sir Roland Penrose. He has published on numerous artists, including Oskar Kokoschka, Paul Klee, Lee Miller, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Georg Baselitz, and Anselm Kiefer.

“In their deeply researched biography, Adrian Clark and Richard Calvocoressi do not dispute what they call the ‘terrible baseline’ of Cooper’s personality. If anything, they amplify it. Yet in their exhaustive, three-part account of Cooper’s life . . . they aim to resurrect another Cooper as well.”—Hugh Eakin, Wall Street JournalShortlisted for Apollo Book of the Year 2025“The detail through which [Cooper’s life] is traced is impressive, even if, as described, the subject’s character often appals.”—Matthew Gale, Art NewspaperLonglisted for The Berger Prize 2026

Adrian Clark has published extensively on various British artists and is the author of a biography of John Rothenstein, director (1938–64) of the Tate Gallery, and Cooper’s bête noire. He also co-wrote, with Jeremy Dronfield, a biography of the collector and financier of Horizon magazine, Peter Watson.  Richard Calvocoressi is a senior curator at Gagosian in London. He was previously director of the Henry Moore Foundation and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, where he acquired masterpieces from the collection of Cooper’s rival, Sir Roland Penrose. He has published on numerous artists, including Oskar Kokoschka, Paul Klee, Lee Miller, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Georg Baselitz, and Anselm Kiefer.

“In their deeply researched biography, Adrian Clark and Richard Calvocoressi do not dispute what they call the ‘terrible baseline’ of Cooper’s personality. If anything, they amplify it. Yet in their exhaustive, three-part account of Cooper’s life . . . they aim to resurrect another Cooper as well.”—Hugh Eakin, Wall Street JournalShortlisted for Apollo Book of the Year 2025“The detail through which [Cooper’s life] is traced is impressive, even if, as described, the subject’s character often appals.”—Matthew Gale, Art NewspaperLonglisted for The Berger Prize 2026