New Zealand artist and designer (1917?2003)
James Coe
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James Coe, 1997
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Born
| Herbert James Bowkett Coe
(
1917-09-26
)
26 September 1917
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Died
| 17 December 2003
(2003-12-17)
(aged 86)
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Nationality
| New Zealand
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Occupation
| Industrial designer
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Known for
| Design education
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Herbert James Bowkett Coe
QSO
(26 September 1917 ? 17 December 2003) was a New Zealand artist, art teacher,
industrial designer
and early champion of
ergonomic design
.
Biography
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]
Coe was born in Timaru in 1917. He attended the
Canterbury College of Fine Art
until his art studies were interrupted by
World War II
and war service in the Pacific.
On the outbreak of
World War II
he resigned his commission in the
Wellington West Coast Regiment
to join the infantry training cadre, and also served with the Intelligence Department at Army Headquarters. Assigned to
Fiji
in 1940, he carried out map and survey work. Coe was promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major on the staff of the Commander of the Royal Engineers. Commissioned with the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1942, he was posted to
30th Battalion
,
3rd Division
,
2NZEF
. His primary military service was in the Solomon Islands, where he commanded a platoon in C Company. On his return from that tour, he was appointed Intelligence Officer at Intelligence School.
[2]
[3]
: 41, 148
Coe continued with his art during his service
[4]
and often sketched portraits of soldiers for them to send home to their family and friends. His war service formed the subject of four paintings held in the New Zealand National Collection of War Art, which were painted after his return to New Zealand in 1945. Two of these were purchased for the Exhibition of Official War Paintings by New Zealand Artists in 1952. The other two were donated to
Archives New Zealand
by Coe in 1995.
[5]
After the war, he was seconded to the
Department of Education
to establish an art scheme for secondary schools. He set up the pilot programme at
Hutt Valley High School
at Hutt Valley, Wellington and was then recruited to become the head of the Hutt Valley High School art department from 1945 to 1959.
[6]
In 1959 Coe took up the position of art school director at
Wellington Technical College
and in the following years helped to establish and lead the new School of Design as part of
Wellington Polytechnic
. He developed a keen interest in anatomy and anatomical drawing which led to a passion for ergonomics. From 1962 he was the head of the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design, and educated design students in New Zealand about the science of ergonomics. He established a laboratory at the school for testing, measuring and recording data. In 1983 he was appointed to a teaching position in ergonomics at
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
in Melbourne.
Coe died on 17 December 2003.
The New Zealand Prime Minister,
Helen Clark
, opened the James Coe Centre (a suite of public meeting and exhibition and function spaces at TheNewDowse, an art & design museum in Lower Hutt, New Zealand) in February 2007, as part of the museum's refurbishment.
Past pupils
[
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]
Past pupils include:
Honours and awards
[
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]
In the
1981 Queen's Birthday Honours
, Coe was appointed a
Companion of the Queen's Service Order
for public services.
[8]
In 1997, he received the
John Britten
Award from the
Designers Institute of New Zealand
. This award is the highest recognition given by DINZ to an outstanding individual for leadership, vision and achievement both in NZ and internationally.
[9]
References
[
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]
Further reading
[
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]
- A. A. W. (1949).
"H. J. B. Coe's Talk on Design: A Report"
.
Design Review: Journal of the Architectural Centre Inc
. Vol. 1, no. 6 April?May. p. 12 – via
NZETC
.
- "Designing People: James Coe".
Designscape
. No. 105. Wellington: New Zealand Industrial Design Council. August 1978. p. 29.
- Smythe, Michael (February 2004). "James Coe".
ProDesign
. No. 69. Auckland: AGM Publishing. p. 56.
External links
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]