G2-05 Riyadh

Brian Clarke’s Riyadh, a stained glass folding screen, takes its title from the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. An intricate pattern covers the entire 12 panels, connected by a black wooden framework. Riyadh constitutes the only stained glass screen in the series that utilises lead.

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Brian Clarke’s Riyadh, a stained glass folding screen, takes its title from the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. An intricate pattern covers the entire 12 panels, connected by a black wooden framework. Riyadh constitutes the only stained glass screen in the series that utilises lead.

Clarke has been fascinated by Islamic art since the early 1980s, when he was commissioned by the Government of Saudi Arabia to design stained glass for the Royal Mosque at King Khalid International Airport. For that occasion, he studied the traditions of Islamic ornamentation extensively, an experience he translated into the Riyadh folding glass screen. Clarke discusses this in conversation with Paul Greenhalgh in 2018:

‘I did the leaded screen. I did a huge project in Riyadh in 1981–2 and the library and treasury windows were formed from Islamic patterns lead- ed together. I loved those windows, I found them intoxicating, beguiling. Flickering colour, a membranous veil, spiritual. As the years have passed by, and my knowledge of the medium has grown, I realise that those windows could live on a greater level of experience.’

Riyadh exists in an edition of 10 unique variants plus 3 artist's proofs, published by HENI.

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