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The Glass Wall (Dedicated to Linda McCartney)
The Glass Wall (Dedicated to Linda McCartney)
1998 - 2001
Brian Clarke's The Glass Wall (Dedicated to Linda McCartney) is a monumental stained glass artwork stretching over 22 metres in length and 4 metres in height. It is divided into eight panels of varying colours, each gridded with 35 squares of leaded glass. The panels feature either abstract compositions or large-scale fleur de lys motifs in calligraphic lead lines. The work takes its title from and is dedicated to photographer Linda McCartney, a close friend of Clarke and his collaborator in the series Brian Clarke and Linda McCartney: Collaborations.
The Glass Wall (Dedicated to Linda McCartney) was first exhibited at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in 1998. It was subsequently acquired by the Corning Museum of Glass in 1999 for its permanent collection and installed at the museum’s entrance until 2012.
In 1998, Clarke said:
"This 'wall of glass', this membrane of fluid forms and liquid colour is derived from my fascination and love for heraldry, in particular the fleur de lys. It is dedicated to my beautiful friend Linda McCartney."
In her review of the exhibition at Tony Shafrazi Gallery for The New York Times, Grace Glueck writes:
"A tour de force of contemporary stained glass, its brilliantly nuanced colors range from near-transparent white to rose and sparkling blue. Though its subject matter is entirely secular, it conveys a feeling of great cathedral spaces... It consists of eight panels, each gridded with 35 squares of leaded glass, differing in their colors and emphases. In the first panel, a panoply of shimmering greens, the eye teases out the freely drawn fleur de lys; in another panel, it glows prominently in a hearty pink-rose touched by white against a background of celestial blue. In the last panel, milky whites define the motif on a rose ground. In panels between, traceries of the fleur de lys can be read, but overall the panels are seen as shimmering curtains of pure translucent white or color. Mr. Clarke's extraordinary sense of color and architectural design, expressed in a scale that is entirely appropriate, make The Glass Wall a strikingly beautiful work."
In 2001, Clarke returned to this composition on a smaller scale in a separate study composed of seven panels, titled Study from the Glass Wall. This was made for the 2002 Flowers for New York exhibition at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, curated by Michel Witmer.