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A Life in Art & Reuniting the Twenties Group are two exhibitions currently showing at Towner to shine a light on the life and legacy of pioneering gallerist Lucy Wertheim. Wertheim's approach to collecting and curating stood out from many of her peers due to her commitment to the artists she befriended, taking them under her wing and dedicating time to their career development. Often, she would see potential that others did not, providing opportunities to talented young artists who had found it hard to break through barriers in the rest of the arts world characterised by gender or sexuality.

One such artist was British Modernist painter and wood engraver Suzanne Cooper. Here, Tim Mainstone of The Mainstone Press tells us about her life, her work and her vision ahead of the release of new book Suzanne Cooper: Paintings under the Spare-Room Bed.

Many art experts now believe that British Modernist painter and engraver Suzanne Cooper (1916–1992) has not had the credit she deserves. Not that she was entirely unheralded in her lifetime: in the 1930s while studying at the innovative Grosvenor School of Modern Art in Pimlico, she began showing oil paintings and wood engravings in prestigious West End galleries, and reviewers singled out her work for praise.

Cooper became the protégée of one of her tutors, the renowned printmaker Iain Macnab, and the influential dealer and collector, Lucy Carrington Wertheim. Wertheim not only exhibited Cooper’s work, but also bought at least two of her paintings. That’s why the artist features in the exhibitions currently at Towner: A Life in Art: Lucy Wertheim, Patron, Collector, Gallerist and Reuniting the Twenties: From Barbara Hepworth to Victor Pasmore.

Cooper was no great self-promoter, and her personal life was highly conventional: unlike some of her better-known contemporaries, there was no tragedy, and she never had any succès de scandale. She volunteered as a nurse in the Second World War, then got married and had children; after the conflict she more or less abandoned her own artistic ambitions and taught art in a local primary school. While it’s seldom easy for anyone to find recognition as a painter, there’s no doubt it was particularly hard to make it as a female artist in the first half of the 20th century. Perhaps as a consequence she later discouraged her daughter from following in her footsteps, telling her flatly: ‘You can’t make a living out of art’.

Today it looks as if Suzanne Cooper’s largely unremarkable life story may have hindered her posthumous reputation. That’s particularly unfortunate because her work is anything but cosy and lacking in ambition: on the contrary, it’s unfailingly challenging, with Surrealist edges to her portraits and landscapes. She raises many questions that are left deliberately unanswered for the viewer to ponder. Take for example the maid outside the front door in Bloomfield Terrace (1936): what is the letter in her right hand? Why is she holding her other hand to her head in apparent consternation? Has she missed the post? Does the letter contain disturbing news? And then on the left of the canvas: what has grabbed the attention of the workman looking over the railings into the basement area of the house?

Another Cooper painting that becomes more enigmatic the longer one looks at it is Still Life (1938). The unifying theme is objects that might be encountered on an exotic luxury cruise, including seashells and a bottle of sweet liqueur. There’s also various equipment for onboard games. The table tennis bat and ball lie flat, as they naturally would, but what are we to make of the darts – four, not the standard three – that seem to be dive-bombing the composition? We may speculate about the possible biographical significance: Cooper had recently been on a liner round the Caribbean to help her recover from injuries sustained in a car crash. Her father blamed the driver, her boyfriend, who he thought was an irresponsible speed merchant. As it turned out, parental disapproval didn’t dash the couple’s subsequent long and happy marriage, but the tensions it caused at the time may have influenced and perhaps inspired this painting.

Thames in October (1936) – an arresting vision of London’s river – is romantic, but the romance has an edge derived partly from the stormy waters (exaggerated for effect) and partly from the composition, which excludes riparian clutter (embankment walls, jetties and suchlike) while incorporating landmarks and vessels from several different locations, most notably a bridge that in real life carries trains into and out of Victoria Station but which the artist has moved upstream to Putney.

This year’s 30th anniversary of Suzanne Cooper’s death provides a welcome opportunity to bring her talent and achievement to wider public attention. It is hoped that the paintings (and wood engravings) of hers on show at Towner until 25 September will attract a whole new generation of art lovers.

The artist’s life and work are also celebrated in Suzanne Cooper: Paintings under the Spare-Room Bed. This beautiful new book – the first devoted exclusively to Cooper – features 50 of her enchanting paintings, wood engravings and drawings. A commentary on each piece is provided by Andrew Stewart, while richly illustrated essays by Lucy Hughes-Hallett (the artist’s daughter-in-law) and art historian Jenny Uglow reflect on Cooper’s oeuvre and reassess her status, not only in the British art world of her own time but also in the view of posterity.

Suzanne Cooper: Paintings under the Spare-Room Bed (£35) is published in August by The Mainstone Press