Genius is Dull Charisma is a Bore is an early work by Brian Clarke, dating to 1977. It comprises an abstract composition in which rubber haemostatic straps are arranged vertically and in parallel at the centre of the support, anchored with nails to the upper edge on one side and to an orange block on the other. Irregular segments of colour are painted between the straps, with some pigment dripping onto the block below. On either side of the composition, inscriptions are handwritten in capital letters in black and red, including Clarke’s signature, the date ‘1977’, ‘Oldham’, ‘Sex’, and the work’s title, ‘Genius is Dull Charisma is a Bore’.