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Collages
2022 - 2025
Collages is an extensive series of works created by Brian Clarke between 2022 and 2025. Produced during a period of convalescence, many of the works are named after the locations in which they were made, from Ibiza and Bahrain to The Connaught Hotel and The London Clinic.
The series reflects Clarke’s lifelong dedication to the observation of nature, featuring motifs inspired by flowers, insects and birds. Working from life, he began by drawing with white pencil on black card before gradually introducing coloured collage elements into his compositions. Cutting directly into hand-painted sheets of paper without preliminary sketches, Clarke worked intuitively, using “scissors as a pencil” and echoing the cut-out techniques of artists such as Henri Matisse. The resulting works make use not only of the cut-out elements themselves but, at times, also of the surrounding sheets from which they were removed, transforming negative space into an integral component of the composition.
In a 2023 conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, published in Brian Clarke: Collages, Clarke reflects on his creative process, describing it as both a source of solace and a means of reconnecting with nature in the final years of his life: "I never feel more like I’m a legitimate part of nature than when I'm making these. I don’t feel like I’m portraying nature, but I'm joining in with it."
A total of 327 original collages from this series were exhibited in the show Brian Clarke: A Great Light at Newport Street Gallery, London, between 2023 and 2024. These works were offered for sale for the first time through HENI Primary and were published in the 2023 volume Brian Clarke: Collages.
Works from this series have been developed into limited-edition prints through Collages and Collage Screenprints. They have also served as designs for a number of autonomous stained glass works, including the Tributes series and the Pendants series.
Clarke continued to develop the series until 2025, creating works up to his death.