Brian Clarke: Vespers

Brian Clarke: Vespers showcases the 559 ‘Vespers’ watercolours and collages by Brian Clarke, with a preface by the artist and an introduction by the writer and art critic Robert Storr. Named after this series, which derives its title from the Greek hespera meaning ‘evening’, the book presents a series of evening devotions that the artist started to paint in Seville in 2019, a practice that continued between the artist’s home and his studio in London, in the sombre midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Brian Clarke: Vespers showcases the 559 ‘Vespers’ watercolours and collages by Brian Clarke, with a preface by the artist and an introduction by the writer and art critic Robert Storr. Named after this series, which derives its title from the Greek hespera meaning ‘evening’, the book presents a series of evening devotions that the artist started to paint in Seville in 2019, a practice that continued between the artist’s home and his studio in London, in the sombre midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘On the surface of it,’ Clarke explains, ‘they’re paintings of poppies, but they’re a bit more urgent than poppies are generally – aggressive, some of them. I wouldn’t want to spend the night with some, but others I’ve fallen in love with. They are devotions, a repeated action of putting down the best of yourself to share – as near as a post-Darwinian realist can get to saying a prayer.’