page_title: Cora Cohen
section_title: Early life and education
hierarchical_section_title: Cora Cohen / Early life and education
caption_attribution_description: English: Cora Cohen, Replace the Beloved, 1984 60 x 60 inches, oil on linen
context_page_description: Cora Cohen is an American artist whose works include paintings, drawings, photographs, and altered x rays. Cohen is most known for her abstract paintings and is often identified as continuing the tradition of American Abstraction. The New York Times' critic Michael Brenson wrote of her 1984 exhibition, Portraits of Women: "The works are dense, brooding and yet elated. The turbulence of the paint not only looks but also feels like freedom." Cohen interviewed many other artists also associated with continuing the tradition of American Abstraction for Bomb Magazine including; Ralph Humphrey, Dona Nelson, Craig Fisher, Carl Ostendarp and Joan Mitchell. Her work has also been identified with traditions of European abstraction, and specifically German abstraction, including the work of Wols, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter. She began exhibiting in Germany in the early nineties and continues to show at some of its most prestigious institutions.
context_section_description: Cora Cohen was born in New York City. She attended the High School of Music & Art (1957–60) and Bennington College (1960-64), where she studied with Paul Feeley, and Lawrence Alloway. Cohen was Artist in Residence in Painting at the University of Pennsylvania (1969–70), after which she returned to Bennington College as a graduate student (1970–72). During this time, she studied with Richard Haas, and met sound artist Liz Phillips who introduced her to new music, in particular that of Pauline Oliveros and Steve Reich. In this work Cohen found reinforcement for using traditional art materials to create decompositional abstractions.
caption: Cora Cohen, Replace the Beloved, 1984, 60 x 60 inches, oil on linen. Private collection, Atlanta.
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