An International Milestone

In 1965, during a pivotal period in American history and the struggle for racial equality, Alexander became the first Jamaican artist invited to hold an art exhibition at the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C. The exhibition represented an important international milestone in Cooper’s career. It also demonstrated the growing recognition of Jamaican visual art beyond the island’s shores. From the 1960s onward, he exhibited widely in Jamaica and internationally. He also participated in National and Biennial exhibitions associated with the National Gallery of Jamaica, establishing a lasting place among the significant Jamaican artists of his generation.

Landscape painting joined observation with atmosphere

Fisherman making a living, showing daily life

Artist Who Continued to Evolve

Although Alexander became widely known for representational scenes of Jamaican life, his practice was remarkably diverse. His early work reflected post-impressionist influences before moving toward modernist abstraction and expressionism. During the 1960s, Alexander experimented extensively with line, shape, movement, composition, and color. The types of paintings, prints and watercolors that he produced as an emerging artist during the 1960s, coincided with an ethos adapted by the likes of Eugene Hyde, Milton Harley and Karl Parboosingh, who applied elements of modernist abstraction to Jamaican subject matter. Works such as Stevedore (1967) belong to this experimental period. Rather than presenting the figure conventionally, Alexander used energetic lines and expressive movement to suggest a body almost in motion.

Figures and community life rendered with directness and humanity.

Alexander’s figure studies reflect both disciplined observation and creative freedom.

His experimentation continued through the 1970s. His “Children’s Series” explored abstraction through forms resembling the spontaneous marks and drawings of children. These works demonstrated Cooper’s willingness to move beyond conventional representation and explore new visual languages. By the late 1970s, Alexander increasingly returned to representational painting. His subjects became more recognizable, yet his experimentation with composition, color, and expression remained evident.

Creativity with Black and white line drawings