Flowers for New York

Flowers for New York is seven-part polyptych in stained glass with each panel depicting a fleur de lys. Brian Clarke created this work for the Flowers for New York exhibition at the Steuben Gallery of the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, curated by Michel Witmer in 2002, following the September 11th attacks.

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Flowers for New York is seven-part polyptych in stained glass with each panel depicting a fleur de lys. Brian Clarke created this work for the Flowers for New York exhibition at the Steuben Gallery of the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, curated by Michel Witmer in 2002, following the September 11th attacks.

Clarke explains in 2002,

‘After September 11th, along with most of the rest of the world, I was lost in a confusion of sadness that followed the attack on New York. I was unable to offer real tangible help to the city I have both loved and intermittently lived in since 1974. I found myself sending flowers to New York friends, an involuntary desire to make contact. It occurred to me that if for a while I dropped everything I might, with the collaboration of Steuben, be able send a few flowers to New York itself, gently and without fuss; as one might to a much loved friend who has been suffering. These are my flowers. They come from the heart. They go, I hope, to the heart, without any desire other than to show a shared affection for a people and a city for whom I feel so much goodwill.’

This work is now in the collection of the Swiss Museum of Stained Glass and Glass Art at the Vitromusée Romont, installed in the Orangery.

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