Maurice Cockrill
Born in Hartlepool, County Durham, Cockrill studied painting at Wrexham School of Art before teaching at Liverpool College of Art and Liverpool Polytechnic. He was a central figure in Liverpool’s artistic life, funded by the Arts Council and regularly exhibiting at the Walker Art Gallery, before his departure for London in 1982. He was signed to, and his work shown at, Bernard Jacobson Gallery in many solo exhibitions. He was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in 1995 and was elected RA in 1999.
Maurice Cockrill had his first solo exhibition at Archeus Fine Art in September 2002. He was on the Hanging Committee for the Royal Academy's 2001, 2002 and 2004 Summer Exhibitions, before being elected the Keeper of the Royal Academy of Arts and Head of the Royal Academy Schools. In 2006 he became President of the Royal Cambrian Academy
Professor of Contemporary Fine Art in Liverpool John Moores University.
Cockrill's work is held in the following collections:
British Museum
Arts Council of Great Britain
Welsh Arts Council
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Ulster Museum, Belfast
Hertfordshire Education Committee
The Leicester Collection
London Borough of Camden
University of Liverpool
Liverpool Daily Post
Alexander Howden Group
Borough of Milton Keynes
John Moores
D.G. Bank
Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport
Granada Television
Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf
Contemporary Arts Society
Deutsche Bank
Unilever
Centro Cultural Arte Contempraneo, Polanco, Mexico
Riggs Bank AG London
Royal Academy, London
Royal Society of Medicine, Pathology Division (commission)