St. James's

Commissioned for a private home in 2016 and completed in 2019, the private residence at St. James's Park is one of Brian Clarke’s most substantial interiors. What began as a commission for a mosaic floor developed, via the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk or ‘total work of art’, into an integrated scheme for an entrance hall, conceived as both artwork and environment in itself.

The sculptural metalwork, stained glass, integral paintings, mosaic, ceramics and bronze fittings pull the central space and adjoining rooms into a linked whole. The mosaic floor continues through the entrance hall into a bathroom and the adjacent elevator, both with backlit ceilings of mouthblown glass. A stained glass sliding screen acts as a room-divider in the adjacent living area and kitchen. On an external patio, overlooking St. James’s Park, is a major mosaic work of Clarke’s, the 2010 ‘Castlemaine House Mosaic’, which was executed for the patrons at a previous location. When they moved to their new home, they had the mosaic surveyed and removed by a team of mosaicists and conservators, and reinstalled at their St. James’s residence.

In his 2020 book Ceramic, Art and Civilisation art historian Paul Greenhalgh said:

‘Among contemporary practitioners, Brian Clarke has carried the concept of gesamtkunstwerk into extraordinary terrain. Increasingly over the last twenty years, he has orchestrated stained glass, painting, metal, mosaic, and tile into spectacular ensembles, material operas, wholly in the early modern spirit of gesamtkunstwerk. The interior of this private London house contains work in ceramic tile, mosaic, glass, metalwork, and oil on canvas. The combination of disciplines in this contemporary Gesamtkunstwerk resonates with the Golden Age of Islam, via the Art Nouveau generation.’