G2-21 Canterbury Tales

Brian Clarke’s Canterbury Tales, a stained glass folding screen, is named after the influential fourteenth-century novel by Geoffrey Chaucer. In the 2020 catalogue Brian Clarke: The Art of Light, Paul Greenhalgh writes:

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Brian Clarke’s Canterbury Tales, a stained glass folding screen, is named after the influential fourteenth-century novel by Geoffrey Chaucer. In the 2020 catalogue Brian Clarke: The Art of Light, Paul Greenhalgh writes:

'Canterbury Tales, likewise, celebrates the grandeur of medieval stained glass. In this case, the main image is the sower, a celebration of ordinary people, of work, and perhaps of the dignity of working-class life. The black outlines in these two screens give the impression of leaded glass, but as Francesco Brusatin points out, both are a completely transparent experience.’

Brusatin describes the process of making Canterbury Tales in 2018:

‘We used sand-blasted little dots to do the visual job the lead used to do, in creating a dark area. Also, usually in a medieval window the glass had dark paint to create eyes and features. In this instance, it is dark red and blue blasted-in dots, of red and blue. There is actually no pure black within the glass itself. Brian’s blacks are really very deep purples.’

A moveable and autonomous work, this screen is freed from architectural settings and devoid of the traditionally used lead. Canterbury Tales exists in an edition of 10 unique variants plus 3 artist's proofs, published by HENI.

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