In his series Paintings of 1987, Brian Clarke invokes the cross, a recurring symbol in his work first introduced in the late 1970s through his Early Cross Paintings series of 1978–1979. In Paintings, the motif appears in compositions that feature either single enlarged equilateral crosses or patterns of crosses. The works also incorporate Clarke’s signature computergram elements.

In 2019, Clarke reflected on his fascination with the cross:

"The cross is the last word in structure. You’re naturally drawn towards that if you have an architectonic sense in your art: it’s irresistible. Once you’ve understood it, and the orthogonal geometries of structure just become part of your second nature, you can really move on, embrace the fluid and the spatial."