Collages

Brian Clarke’s collages from 2022 to 2023 were made 'drawing from life' with scissors. Created during a time of convalescence, they are named for the various locations in which they were made, from Ibiza and Bahrain to The Connaught Hotel and the London Clinic.

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Brian Clarke’s collages from 2022 to 2023 were made 'drawing from life' with scissors. Created during a time of convalescence, they are named for the various locations in which they were made, from Ibiza and Bahrain to The Connaught Hotel and the London Clinic.

Echoing the technique of historical cut-out artists like Henri Matisse, Clarke cuts directly from paper, without drawing the shape first. The resulting works use not only the cut-out shapes, but sometimes incorporate the frame-like sheets of paper from which they have been cut.

In a 2023 interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist, published in Brian Clarke: Collages, Clarke discussed the experience of creating these works: '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.'

Clarke has developed some of these collages as autonomous stained glass artworks in ‘Tributes’ and ‘Pendants’.

The 327 original collages went on sale for the first time on HENI Primary. Applications closed on 7 December 2023.

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