shared by all. By greatly enlarging only one portion
of the human body surface in his photographs, he
emphasized the similarities shared by everyone,
rather than their distinctions (such as the face).
Coplans developed this technique to de-emphasize
youth, (in particular) beauty, race, and the prevailing
idea of perfection by never photographing the entire
body. In his pictures, Coplans expressed his beliefs
that a detailed picture of himself was really a picture
of every human, all joined together by shared genet-
ics, with age not a significant factor.
NancyBarrSeealso:Heartfield, John; Krauss, Rosalind; Nude
Photography; Weegee
Biography
Born London, England, 24 June 1920; raised in South
Africa with frequent trips to England. Served in the
British Armed Forces, 1938–46. Moved to San Fran-
cisco, California, 1960. Co-founderArtforummagazine,
- Appointed Director of the art gallery at the Uni-
versity of California, Irvine, 1965, and Senior Curator of
the Pasadena Art Museum, 1967. Moved to New York
City and became Editor-in Chief ofArtforum 1971.
Recepient of the Frank Jewitt Mather award of the
College Art Association, 1974. Moved to Akron, Ohio,
after accepting position as Director of the Akron Art
Museum, and founded the Midwest arts magazineDia-
logue, 1978. Recipient of three National Endowment for
the Arts fellowships, 1975, 1980, 1992. Awarded two
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial fellowships 1969, - Recipient of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des
Lettres, 2001. Died in August 2003.
Individual Exhibitions
1981 John Coplans: Recent Portraits; Art Institute of Chi-
cago; Chicago, Illinois
1982 John Coplans: Recent Photographs; New Gallery of
Contemporary Art; Cleveland, Ohio
1984 John Coplans: Photographs; Emily H. Davis Gallery,
The University of Akron; Akron, Ohio
1985 Clarence Kennedy Gallery; Cambridge, Massachusetts
John Coplans: Photographs, 1980–85; The Fine Arts
Gallery, University of California; Irvine, California
John Coplans: Photographer;MadisonArtCenter;Mad-
ison, Wisconsin
1986 John Coplans: Photographies;Muse ́e du Nouveau Monde;
La Rochelle, France
1988 A Body of Work: Photographs by John Coplans; San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco, Cali-
fornia (traveled to Museum of Modern Art, New York,
New York; University of Missouri Art Gallery, Kansas
City, Missouri; Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago, Illi-
nois [1989])
A Body of Work: Photographs by John Coplans;Salade
Exposiciones de la Fundacion ‘‘la Caixa,’’; Barcelona, Spain
John Coplans: Autoportraits;CentredeKerpape,Ploe-
meur, Rencontres Photographiques en Bretagne; Bretagne,
France
1989 John Coplans: Mains; Salon d’Angle de la Re ́gionale
des Affaires Culturelles; Nantes, France (traveled to
Abbaye de Bouchemaine, Angers, France; Centre d’Art
Passages, Troyes, France)
John Coplans: Autoportrait, 1984–89; Muse ́edela
Vielle Charite ́’; Marseille, France
1990 Self-Portraits: Frankfurter Kunstverein; Frankfurt,
Germany
John Coplans: Self-Portraits, Hand and Foot; Museum
Boymans-van Beuningen; Rotterdam, The Netherlands
1991 John Coplans: Self Portraits; Matrix Gallery, Wads-
worth Atheneum; Hartford, Connecticut
John Coplans; Joseloff Gallery, University of Hart-
ford; Hartford, Connecticut
1992 John Coplans: A Retrospective; Gulbenkian Founda-
tion; Lisbon, Portugal
1994 Self-Portraits; Muse ́e National d’Art Moderne, Centre
Georges Pompidou; Paris, France
1998 John Coplans: Retrospective; P.S.1 Contemporary Art
Center; Long Island City, New York
1998 Paco das Artes; Sao Paulo, Brazil
1999 National Galleries; Edinburgh, ScotlandGroup Exhibitions
1982 Counterparts: Form and Emotion in Photography; The
Metropolitan Museum of Art; New York, New York
Lichtbildnisse: Das Portrat in der Fotografie; Rhei-
nischen Landesmuseum; Bonn, Germany
1983 Whitney Biennial Exhibition; Whitney Museum of
American Art; New York, New York
1984 Face to Face: Recent Portrait Photography; Institute of
Contemporary Art; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1985 Self-Portrait: The Photographer’s Persona 1840–1985;
Museum of Modern Art; New York, New York
Nude, Naked, Stripped; Hayden Gallery, List Visual
Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1986 Staging the Self; National Portrait Gallery; London,
England (traveled to Plymouth Arts Center, Plymouth,
England (1987); John Hansard Gallery, Southampton,
England (1987); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England
(1987)).
1987 The Other Man: Representations of Masculinity; New
Museum of Contemporary Art; New York, New York
The Body Politic: Representations of Sexuality; Photo-
graphers’ Gallery, London, England (traveled to
Impressions Gallery, York, England; Triangle Media
Center, Birmingham, England)
1988 First Person Singular: Self Portrait Photography,
1840–1987; The High Museum of Art at Georgia-Pacific
Center; Atlanta, Georgia
Le Corps Figure ́II; Fondation Nationale de la Photo-
graphie; Lyon, France
The Second Israeli Photography Biennale, 1988; Mish-
kan Le Omanut Museum of Art; Ein Harod, Israel
1989 The Photography of Invention: American Pictures of the
1980s; National Museum of American Art; Washington,
D.C. and travelingCOPLANS, JOHN