Skull Paintings and Studies for Portraits is a series of works created by Brian Clarke between 2007 and 2008 that explores themes of memento mori. The series comprises paintings of single skulls and groups of skulls, many of which are named after specific individuals or universal archetypes. Emerging from a period of profound grief in the artist’s life, these works reflect on loss, remembrance, and the process of recovery, which Clarke expresses through the gradual reintroduction of colour across the series.

In conversation with Doris Saatchi in the catalogue Don’t Forget the Lamb, Clarke explains:

‘"After the death of my mother and someone else close to me […] I didn’t feel that I could authentically engage with optimistic colour for a while. As I worked on the skulls, colour began to show up bit by bit and with each work I put my foot back into the world a little deeper."