Brian Clarke place of birth Oldham
2010s to present
In 2010, Clarke was commissioned to design stained windows for the new Papal Chapel of the Apostolic Nunciature, the diplomatic embassy of the Holy See to Great Britain, for the 2010 visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom, the first-ever state visit made by a pope to Britain. 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 his Caryatids panels (2002), which depict muscular young men in beachwear by the sea. The work received criticism when it was shown at Christie's, London in 2011, reflective of the traditionalist values that surround the medium of stained glass.
In 2015, Clarke curated A Strong Sweet Smell of Incense: A Portrait of Robert Fraser, an exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, in association with Pace Gallery, together with author Harriet Vyner (whose 'cult biography' of Fraser, Groovy Bob, Clarke had contributed to). The 2014 solo exhibition Spitfires and Primroses with the Pace Gallery, juxtaposed two recent series of works, pairing oil paintings of the Second World War aircraft, arranged in a heraldic semé, with watercolours of English primroses. The show revealed an underlying disquiet to Clarke's botanical imagery. This aspect resonated later in his paintings of poppies, which formed the exhibition Vespers at Phillips, London in 2021.
In 2020, it was announced that a new Blue Coat School was to be built in Oldham, Clarke's hometown, named the Brian Clarke Church of England Academy, to provide free school places to 1,200 pupils. The Academy was granted planning permission in April 2021, with construction due to be completed in 2023.
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