John Coplans

Painter, critic, curator, photographer, and cofounder of "Artforum" magazine began his career as a painter and art teacher in London, where he was born. In 1960 he moved to San Francisco, shifting to criticism and becoming a curator of contemporary American art. Coplans founded "Artforum" in 1962 with Philip Leider and John Irwin and later worked as a curator at UCLA and the Pasadena Art Museum (now called the Norton Simon Museum). Coplans was also the director of the Akron Art Institute (now the Akron Art Museum). In 1978 he began taking self-portraits that focused on abstracted parts of his aging body. They have been shown throughout the US and Europe. [ARTnews, October 2003]

Died August 21, 2003, in New York.