Couper Collection
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The Couper Collection is an internationally exhibited collection of artwork and installations by the British artist Max Couper, as well as a venue for exhibitions and events by other artists, and youth art education projects.
Based in Hove, Sussex since 2022, the Couper Collection for many years exhibited its art in a floating gallery on converted barges, moored on the banks of the Thames in Battersea, London.
Between 2001 and 2003 the Collection was a Focus Site of the London String of Pearls Golden Jubilee Festival, Patron Prince Charles.
The Couper Collection Diamond Jubilee Bridge was launched in a ceremony during the sailby of The Queen and The Prince of Wales during the 2012 Thames Jubilee Pageant.
WorksEdit
Major works by Max Couper and the Couper Collection include:
- Couper's new artwork & costumes at Galerie Verbeeck Van Dyke, Antwerp (2021)
- Couper Collection's children's art exhibitions with the National Portrait Gallery London (2002)
- Couper's Thames Fleeting Opera with the Royal Opera House and Judi Dench (2000)
- Couper's exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MuHKA), Antwerp (1996)
- Couper's exhibition at the Sprengel Museum, Hanover (1997)
- Couper's exhibition at the Lehmbruck Museum of sculpture, Duisburg (1997)
Challenged mooring rights & closure 2014–2022Edit
In 2006, the Couper Collection was involved a dispute with Hutchison Whampoa and the Port of London Authority regarding a land claim at Albion Riverside and Foster and Partners's plans to remove the charity's barges.<ref name="es">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Foster's lawyers, Farrer & Co, put in objections to the UK Land Registry.<ref name="Times2004">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Max Couper claimed "ancient mooring rights", but in 2013 Justice Arnold ruled that the barges should be removed,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Hutchison Whampoa sought to enforce the ruling with a further High Court order to "dispose of or destroy" the gallery. The PLA offered alternative mooring sites, which Couper declined.<ref name="es"/>
The litigation was long, and complex. Proceedings were first issued in 2006.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The final judgement in the litigation was later in 2017, when Couper attempted to sue his solicitors and counsel in the earlier proceedings.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The vessels have been sold.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Collection was re-incorporated in 2020 as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC). Registered as The Couper Collection Sussex CIC, its current directors in 2023 are Tim French MBE, Max Couper and Magdalena Couper.
ReferencesEdit
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