Born to a working-class family in Oldham, in the north of England, and a full-time art student on scholarship by age 13, Clarke came to prominence in the late 1970s as a painter and figure of thePunk movement[6][7][8] and designer of stained glass. By 1980, he had become a major figure in international contemporary art,[9] the subject of several television documentaries and acafé society regular. He was known for hisarchitectonic art, prolific output in various media,[10] friendships with key cultural figures,[11][12][a] and polemical lectures and interviews.
His practice in architectural andautonomous stained glass, often on a monumental scale,[13] has led to successive innovation and invention in the development of the medium.[b] This includes the creation of stained glass withoutlead and the subsequent pioneering of a 'dramatically enhancedPointillism'[16] in glass, as well as the creation of sculptural stained glass works, analogous to collage, made primarily or entirely of lead.[17] The latter two advances are described as having taken stained glass as an art form to its zero-point in each direction: absolute transparency and complete opacity.[c]
Brian Clarke was born inOldham,Lancashire, to Edward Ord Clarke, a coal miner, and Lilian Clarke (née Whitehead), a cotton spinner.[26] Raised in a family familiar withSpiritualism – his maternal grandmother was a notable local medium – Clarke attended a Spiritualist Lyceum throughout his childhood[27] and was considered a 'sensitive', gaining a reputation locally as a 'boymedium'.[d]
Aged 12, he applied for a place in the last intake of an education scheme existing in the north of England to enable artistically promising children to leave their secondary school and become full-time art students,[27][28] and was awarded a scholarship to the Oldham School of Arts and Crafts.[29] In place of a standard curriculum, he principally studied the arts and design, learning drawing, heraldry, pictorial composition, colour theory, pigment mixing and calligraphy, among other subjects.[27] Considered a prodigy, by the age of 16 Clarke had mastered the orthodoxies of academic life drawing. In 1968, he and his family moved toBurnley and, too young at 15 to gain entrance to Burnley College of Art, he lied about his age and was accepted on the strength of his previous work.[27]
In 1970, Clarke enrolled in the Architectural Stained Glass course at North Devon College of Art and Design, graduating from the Diploma in Design with a first class distinction.[27] In 1974, he was awarded aWinston Churchill Memorial Travelling Fellowship[30] to study religious art in Italy, France, and West Germany. He was inspired by the post-war German school of stained glass artists, and in particular the artistJohannes Schreiter. In 1976, Clarke received the Churchill Extension Fellowship to study art in architecture and contemporary painting in the United States, where he connected with the art of, and later befriended,Robert Rauschenberg,Jasper Johns, andAndy Warhol.
Clarke died from cancer on 1 July 2025, one day before his 72nd birthday.[31][32]
Baptistery windows designed and fabricated in 1976 by Clarke forF. X. Velarde's 1932-1934Art Deco church of St Gabriel, Blackburn.[33][34]
Clarke received his first architectural commission at the age of 17. However, his suite of 20 windows for theChurch of St Lawrence,Longridge (1975)[35] is considered his first mature work. Here, the use of transparent glass has aPop Art sensibility; the 'see through’ panes embrace the everyday by letting the real world in. In 1976, Clarke received a large-scale commission from theUniversity of Nottingham to produce 45 paintings, vestments, and a series of stained glass windows for a multi-faith chapel in theQueen's Medical Centre. One of the largest public art commissions of the decade, the process of design and installation was filmed by the BBC as material for a documentary.[36]
In the early years of his career, most of Clarke's work was for religious buildings. However, by 1978, his relationship with the Church of England came to a head over the restoration ofSt Gabriel's Church, Blackburn, which affected windows that he had designed for the building.[37] The resulting end of this relationship freed Clarke to create stained glass for secular contexts and advance the medium as social art. Throughout this period, Clarke was active in bringing attention to stained glass and promoting it as a modern medium. In 1975, he organised the travelling exhibitionGlass Art One, which featured secular,autonomous stained glass panels inspired in part by Japanese-landscape painting.[38] Later, he co-curatedGLASS/LIGHT, an extensive survey of 20th-century stained glass, with Britishwar artistJohn Piper and art historian Martin Harrison,[39] in collaboration with the artistMarc Chagall as part of the 1978 Festival of the City of London.[40] Clarke also produced the bookArchitectural Stained Glass,[41]a polemical collection of essays.
In his painting, Clarke developed a strictly abstractConstructivist language of geometric signs; often his work had an underlying grid structure made from repetitions and variations on thecross. In later years, he would disrupt the grid with free-flowing amorphic forms. In 1977, Punk hit the UK, which had a deep impact on Clarke. He connected withVivienne Westwood andMalcolm McLaren and later collaborated as a designer on their abortedzineChicken, whose creation was funded by EMI and filmed byBBC'sArena.[42] He also expressed Punk's nihilistic energy in the series of paintings, ‘Dangerous Visions’ (1977).
Around the same time, Clarke became friends with the physical chemistLord Snow. After Snow's death, he made a tributary portfolio of screenprints; their title,The Two Cultures, referenced Snow's influential1959 Rede Lecture on the perceived gulf between the humanities and sciences. In 1983, theTate acquired an edition ofThe Two Cultures.[43]
Between 1978 and 1979, the BBC filmed Clarke's studio practice and life for an hour-longBBC Omnibus documentary,[44]Brian Clarke: The Story So Far.[45] Millions watched the documentary in the UK, and the BBC recorded multiple viewer complaints. The programme and subsequent press coverage, including Clarke's appearance on the cover ofVogue, photographed byRobert Mapplethorpe, brought him to broader public attention. Later in 1979, Clarke became a presenter on theBBC2 arts programmeMainstream and theBBC Radio 4 programmeKaleidescope, conducting interviews with figures includingBrassaï,Andy Warhol,John Lennon, andElisabeth Lutyens. He also gave Sheffield bandThe Human League their first television appearance.
Oil painting by Clarke from theVia Crucis series, titledAnd He is Condemned (1983), exhibited at the reopening of the Robert Fraser Gallery
In the 1980s, Clarke was instrumental in bringing stained glass into the public sphere. He received his first international commission for paintings, a wooden construction, and a suite of stained glass windows for the Olympus European Headquarters Building in Hamburg, completed in 1981. Marking a major shift in his own practice and breaking with tradition, he had the windows made at a studio in Germany. The experience of their immersive colour prompted critics to describe them as theColour Field of stained glass. Another development in this work is Clarke's liberation of the lead line from being a purely structural element: where the lead breaks free, it takes on an expressive quality. In the same year, receiving a commission from the Government of Saudi Arabia for theRoyal Mosque of King Khalid International Airport, Clarke studiedIslamic ornament at theQuran schools inFez. Following this, in 1984, the architectural practice Derek Latham and Co. asked Clarke to collaborate on the refurbishment ofHenry Currey's Grade II listedThermal Baths in Buxton. Satisfying his public ambitions for the medium, he enclosed the former Victorian spa in a barrel-vaulted skin of stained glass, bathing the space “in an immense blue light”.[46] It is one of Clarke's earliest works to have been designed to have a deliberate nocturnal presence.
Victoria Quarter Leeds modern abstract stained glass canopy by Brian Clarke at Cross Arcade junction, 1990
In 1988, architectArata Isozaki approached Clarke to collaborate on the Lake Sagami Building inYamanishi.[47] Clarke designed a composition of stained glass for the central lantern[48] and a series of interrelated skylights that referenced elements of Isozaki's building. In the same period, Clarke collaborated withNorman Foster and his architectural practice Foster + Partners to design stained glass for Stansted Airport's new terminal building. For the first time in the history of stained glass,computer-assisted design was utilised in its visualisation and design. Partly for security reasons, the design could not be used. The final commission was for two friezes and a 6-metre high tower of stained glass. While their abstract, constructivist forms resonated with Foster's language, Clarke recently expressed how the medieval technology of lead and stained glass was at odds with the material qualities ofHigh-tech architecture.[49] An urge to resolve this conflict later spurred Clarke to embrace the most cutting-edge glass technology.
Equally experimental across other mediums, Clarke's painting practice was also inspired by technology. Noticing the similarity between the reticular, Constructivist-derived symbols that dominated his work and the light-metering computergrams from Olympus OM System cameras, he produced a series of technology-related paintings, includingTime Lag Zero, for the headquarters ofOlympus Optical (UK). During this period, Clarke produced the cover painting forPaul McCartney's solo albumTug of War, designing the cover with Linda McCartney. He also created the stage designs forPaul McCartney's World Tour (1989–90).
The stained glass windows and dome, and ceramic and carved woodTorah ark of the New Synagogue, Darmstadt, designed by Clarke
Continuing to work collaboratively with leading architects, Clarke started to challenge the traditional containment of stained glass within a frame and fashion entire facades from glass. WhenFuture Systems (the architectural practice ofJan Kaplický andAmanda Levete) asked Clarke to collaborate onThe Glass Dune (1992), he proposed an internal ‘skin of art’ for their innovative boomerang-shaped building, which was never realised. Collaborating later with expressionist architectWill Alsop on the design ofHôtel du Département des Bouches du Rhône (which became known asLe Grand Bleu), Clarke clad the building in anYves Klein blue glass. A landmark in the city ofMarseille, the building is now considered a major work of late 20th-century architecture.[50]
Desiring lighter and more expansive fields of glass, Clarke continued searching for new technologies. Working with architectZaha Hadid on a proposal for the Spittelau Viaducts Housing Project, Vienna, he developed a new type of mouth-blown glass, which he christened 'Zaha-Glas'. Although this project was never realised, the newly developed 'Zaha-Glas'[51] was first used architecturally in Clarke's scheme for the ceiling ofPfizer World Headquarters in New York, a landmark architectural art project that connected 42nd and 43rd Streets in Manhattan. Working with Foster on the design for theAl Faisaliyah Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (installed 1999), Clarke abandoned the medieval technology of glass and supportive lead entirely and conceived a novel solution that involved firing a ceramic frit glaze into float glass. The new glass had a lightness that matched Norman Foster's High-tech building. Clarke, however, continued to use traditional, medieval technologies in other architectural contexts.
Clarke continued to be active in other mediums in addition to stained glass. In 1993, he created the set designs for Paul McCartney'sNew World Tour (1993); one of the sets was a collage of stained glass through the ages. The following year, Clarke had a joint show withLinda McCartney. The exhibition,Collaborations, showed works by both artists and collaborative pieces in which McCartney's photos were silkscreened onto mouth-blown glass using a process of their own devising.[52]
In 1998, the English High Court severed all ties between Francis Bacon's former gallery,Marlborough Fine Art,[53] and the Estate of Francis Bacon. Clarke was appointed sole executor of the Estate of Francis Bacon, acting on behalf of Bacon's heir John Edwards.[54][55] Clarke transferred representation of Francis Bacon to theTony Shafrazi Gallery in New York, where an exhibition was mounted of seventeen previously unseen Bacon paintings recovered from his studio. Clarke brought a second court case against Marlborough Fine Art, alleging that the gallery had underpaid Bacon for his work, asserted undue influence over him,[56] and failed to account for up to 33 of his paintings.[57] Following Edwards' diagnosis with lung cancer in 2002, the litigation was settled out of court, with each side paying its own costs. During the legal process an undisclosed number of Bacon's paintings were recovered from Marlborough, and "vast quantities of correspondence and documents relating to the life of the artist were handed over by the gallery".[58]
In 1998, Edwards and Clarke donated the contents of Bacon's studio at 7 Reece Mews, London, left untouched since Bacon's death, to theHugh Lane, the Dublin City Gallery.[59][60] What followed was a unique conservation project. A decision was taken to preserve the studio as it stood, and a team of archaeologists, art historians, conservators, and curators were involved in the move from London to Dublin.[61] The locations of over 7,000 items were documented, and in Dublin, the studio was rebuilt using all the original doors, flooring, walls, and ceiling,[60] and the items were placed exactly as they were left. The studio opened to the public in 2001, accompanied by the first-ever database to list the contents of an artist's studio.[62]
Stained glass skylight by Clarke, 120 sq metres total. Inspired by William Walton'sOrb and Sceptre Coronation March and executed for The Spindles in Oldham (1993)
Continuing to advance his architectural vision for stained glass, in 2005 Clarke orchestrated the site-specific exhibitionLamina at theGagosian Gallery, London, where floor to ceiling stained glass depicting golden leaves transformed the gallery space and immersed the visitors illuminated natural forms. Nature became a central theme for Clarke's work in these years. In an interview, Clarke acknowledged feeling close toHenri Matisse, who had worked in stained glass and whose work often glorified the wonders of nature. Nature also inspired Clarke's stained glass and ceramic works at Chiswick Mall in West London. Clarke worked with Norman Foster on thePalace of Peace and Reconciliation, a landmark building in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, built to house the triennialCongress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.[63] Clarke's 9,700 square expanse of stained glass crowns the apex of the pyramid (installed 2006), featuring imagery of soaring doves.[64][65]
In another example of Clarke breaking the medieval relationship between glass and lead, in the 2000s he took the radical step to inverse their relationship and began fashioning works entirely of lead. In these autonomous lead works, Clarke often uses the somber weightiness of lead to explore darker themes like mortality. His leadworkDon't Forget the Lamb (2014) is a memorial to his late mother.In this period, nature inspired Clarke's work in other mediums as well. His drawings of flowers use negative space as an expressive element, isolating the flowers in empty space with his signature, nervy line. This is seen in his later series, 'Night Orchids', exhibited at PACE Gallery in 2016.[66] Clarke's collages are equally experimental; the carefully chosen, often torn, fragments and chalk drawings build an image that attempts to capture the essence of the flower depicted. In a radical gesture, Clarke brought the language ofcollage to stained glass in a wrap-around window at Peel Cottage (installed 2009), where he incorporated fragments of medieval glass within a contemporary design.
In 2010, Clarke was commissioned to design stained windows for the new Papal Chapel of theApostolic Nunciature, the diplomatic embassy of the Holy See to Great Britain, for the2010 visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom, the first-ever state visit made by a pope to Britain.[67] The exhibitionThe Art of Light (2018) in Norwich highlighted Clarke's free-standing glass panels. While their folding structures draw inspiration from Japanese folding screens, they explore a new context for stained glass, no longer confined to the fabric of a building, but nevertheless having a strong architectural impact on whatever space they inhabit. The subject matter of these panels is diverse: many depict flowers and nature's opulence in vivid colour, but there are also images of intense grief and Pop-inspired subject matter. A Pop sensibility also runs through hisCaryatids panels (2002), which depict muscular young men in beachwear by the sea. The work received criticism when it was shown atChristie's, London in 2011, reflective of the traditionalist values that surround the medium of stained glass.
In 2015, Clarke curatedA Strong Sweet Smell of Incense: A Portrait of Robert Fraser, an exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, in association withPace Gallery, together with author Harriet Vyner (whose 'cult biography'[68] of Fraser,Groovy Bob, Clarke had contributed to). The 2014 solo exhibitionSpitfires and Primroses with thePace Gallery, juxtaposed two recent series of works, pairing oil paintings of theSecond World War aircraft, arranged in a heraldicsemé, with watercolours of English primroses.[69] The show revealed an underlying disquiet to Clarke's botanical imagery. This aspect resonated later in his paintings of poppies, which formed the exhibitionVespers atPhillips, London in 2021.[70]
In 2020, it was announced that a newBlue Coat School was to be built in Oldham, Clarke's hometown, named theBrian Clarke Church of England Academy,[71] to providefree school places to 1,200 pupils.[72] The academy was granted planning permission in April 2021,[73] with construction completed in 2023, and its first intake of pupils in September 2023.
Clarke also designed the stained glass windows for the new extension toWestminster Coroner's Court, which opened in 2024;The Guardian'sRowan Moore described them as "realised with virtuosity in the handling of depth and density of colour, meant to convey growth and renewal"; Clarke himself explained that the windows were intended "not to give people an artistic ecstasy, but to say ‘I am with you’, ‘I know what you’re going through’, to put an arm around people’s shoulders."[74]
BBCOmnibus –Brian Clarke: The Story So Far. Diana Lashmore, BBC One, 15 March 1979.[94][95]
Mainstream (presenter). BBC Two, 1979.
Time Lag Zero: Impressions of Brian Clarke.Celebration, Granada Television, 1980.
Linda McCartney: Behind the Lens (contributor). Nicholas Caxton, Arena, BBC One, 1992.[96]
Architecture of the Imagination - The Window (contributor). Mark Kidel, BBC Two, 1994.[97]
Architecture of the Imagination - The Stairway (contributor). Mark Kidel, BBC Two, 1994.
Omnibus – Norman Foster (contributor). Mark Kidel, BBC One, 1995.[98]
Eye over Prague/Jan Kaplický – Oko Nad Prahou (contributor). Olga Špátová, 2010.
Frank Brangwyn: Stained Glass – a catalogue (contributor). Malachite Art Films/Libby Horner, 2010.[99]
Colouring Light: Brian Clarke - An Artist Apart. With contributions from Sir Peter Cook, Dame Zaha Hadid, and Martin Harrison. Mark Kidel, BBC Four, 2011.[100]
This is adynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help byediting the page to add missing items, with references toreliable sources.
Ludwig Schaffrath (1924-2011) – an appreciation,The Journal of Stained Glass, Vol. XXXIV. The British Society of Master Glass Painters, 2010.ISBN978-0-9568762-0-1
Burne-Jones: Vast acres and fleeting ecstasies,The Journal of Stained Glass, Vol. XXXV. The British Society of Master Glass Painers, 2011.ISBN978-0-9568762-1-8
Brian Clarke: Working Drawings. With contributions by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens. Salisbury: St. Edmunds Arts Centre, 1979.
Brian Clarke. By Martin Harrison. With contributions by Johannes Schreiter and Patrick Reyntiens. London: Quartet Books, 1981.ISBN0-7043-2281-1
Brian Clarke: Paintings. London: Robert Fraser Gallery, 1983.
Brian Clarke: Microcosm (Stained Glass and Paintings). Tokyo: The Sezon Museum of Modern Art, 1987.
Brian Clarke: Malerei und Farbfenster 1977-1988. With contributions by Johannes Schreiter and Sir Peter Cook. Darmstadt: Hessisches Landesmuseum, 1988.ISBN3-926527-13-7
Brian Clarke: Into and Out of Architecture. With contributions by Sir Norman Foster, Sir Peter Cook, Arata Isozaki, Ryu Niimi and Paul Beldock. London: The Mayor Gallery, 1990.
Brian Clarke. With contributions by Paul Beldock. Japan: Art Random and Kyoto Shoin International, 1990.
Brian Clarke: Designs on Architecture. Introduction by Paul Beldock. Oldham: Oldham Art Gallery, 1993.
Brian Clarke: Architectural Artist. London: Academy Editions, 1994.ISBN1-85490-343-8
Les Vitraux de la Fille-Dieu de Brian Clarke/Die Glasgemälde der Fille-Dieu von Brian Clarke. Edited by: L'Abbaye Cistercienne de la Fille-Dieu à Romont, Museée suisse du vitrail à Romont. Bern: Benteli, 1997.ISBN9783716510865
Brian Clarke—Linda McCartney: Collaborations. Edited by: Stefan Trümpler, Musée suisse du vitrail à Romont. Bern: Benteli, 1997.
'Fleur de Lys': Brian Clarke. London: Faggionato Fine Arts, 1998.
Brian Clarke – Projects. New York: Tony Shafrazi Gallery, 1998.ISBN978-1-891475-13-9
Brian Clarke – Transillumination. Edited by: Martin Harrison. New York: Tony Shafrazi Gallery, 2002.ISBN1-891475-22-3
Brian Clarke – Lamina. With contributions by Martin Harrison. London: Gagosian Gallery, 2005.ISBN1-932598-18-9
Don't Forget the Lamb. New York: Phillips de Pury & Company, 2008.
Spitfires and Primroses 2012-2014/Works 1977-1985. With contributions by Amanda Harrison and Martin Harrison. London: PACE Gallery, 2015.ISBN978-1909406155
^'If the earnest boy from Oldham was bemused to find himself the toast of the glitterati, he wasn't bedazzled. "If you're a well-known plumber you meet well-known electricians, I suppose. It's just the circle you move in. And my friendships with Paul [McCartney] or [Francis] Bacon or Andy [Warhol] – that's just what happens in life. But," he adds with a glimmer of reproof, "I've got friends who aren't famous. I even have friends who aren't dead."'[11]
^Including the early use ofscreen printing, incorporation of photography,[14] the origination of techniques allowing the inclusion of two colours in a single sheet of opaque glass, and the development of bonding techniques including multi-lamination.[15]
^His major contributions to the medium are the removal of structural or outline-delineating lead through the production of seamless stained glass and, conversely, the production of related works created without glass, formed of calligraphic lead solder on sheet lead.[18]
^"As a teenager, I went through the usual adolescent excitements to do with quasi-religious, quasi-artistic things and the closest to home was spiritualism. So I went through all the procedures that young spiritualists in the 1960s went through and became what they call a medium. It wasn't a preoccupation that consumed much of my life but it gave me a reservoir of imagery I find thrilling. To be frank, I think my art is still in what you might call 'mediumship'."[11]
^Crichton-Miller, Emma (4 February 2011). "The Great Glass Elevator".Financial Times. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
^Amaya, Mario (June 1984). "Clarke's New Constructivism".Studio International.197 (1005).
^abcDickson, Jane (15–21 October 2011). "Magic of glass: Meet Brian Clarke, Britain's star of stained glass with a papal blessing".Radio Times. United Kingdom: Immediate Media Company Limited.
^Reyntiens, Patrick (1979). "Elements of Architecture: The Window". In Schofield, Maria (ed.).Decorative Art and Modern Interiors: Themes in Nature. Vol. 68. London: Studio Vista, Cassell Ltd. p. 152.ISBN0289708605.
^Wolfenden, Ian (1976). "Brian Clarke: Glass Art One".Crafts. No. Jan–Feb 1976. London:Crafts Council. p. 50.
^Harrison, Martin (1978).GLASS/LIGHT. England: The City Arts Trust Limited. p. 24.ISBN0704322811.
^Martin Harrison; Robin Aldworth (Spring 1979). Tate, R L C (ed.)."Light and Stained Glass"(PDF).Thorn Lighting Journal (20). Thorn Industries:13–17. Retrieved26 September 2019.
^"Brian Clarke's Story".WCMT.org. Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Archived fromthe original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved25 December 2018.
^Gorman, Paul (2020).The Life and Times of Malcolm McLaren: The Biography. London: Constable. p. 464.ISBN978-1-47212-108-0.
^The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions. London: Tate Publishing (UK). December 1986.ISBN978-0946590490.
^Spalding, Frances (1990).The Dictionary of British 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. England: Antique Collector's Club. p. 120.
^Delarge, Jean-Pierre. "Bacon, Francis" [The Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Plastic Arts]. Dictionnaire des arts plastiques modernes et contemporains (in French). Delarge. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
^abcdefghijklmnopqrst"Exhibitions and Projects" (list). In Foster, Norman; Frantz, Susanne K; Clarke, Brian.Brian Clarke: Projects, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York.ISBN1-891475-13-4.
^Brian Clarke: Transillumination (exhibition catalogue), Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York.ISBN1-891475-22-3.
^abMartin Harrison (2005).Lamina. London: Gagosian Gallery.
^Kidel, Mark; EnhanceTV (Firm); Screenrights (Society); Special Broadcasting Service Corporation; British Broadcasting Corporation; Calliope Media (2012)."Colouring light: Brian Clarke: an artist apart". Enhance : Screenrights. Retrieved12 April 2022.
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Brian Clarke: The Art of Light HENI Talks
