'In 1950, Darwin put Clarke’s name forward for inclusion in Basil Spence’s project to rebuild Coventry Cathedral. By the time of the 1952 Biennale, the 27-year-old sculptor was at work on a decade-long series of commissions that would eventually include the cross and candlesticks for Coventry’s high altar, a vast metal crown of thorns and three of the cathedral’s 10 nave windows – the last forming part of one of the largest stained glass programmes of the 20th century.
A decade later, a Sunday Telegraph critic ticked off many other major commissions that Clarke had made since leaving the RCA: “Candles and altars for Chichester Cathedral; 30 relief panels for the Canberra liner; doors for two London banks; a light fitting for a bank in Liverpool (‘I believe the teller resigned the next day’); a mosaic for Liverpool University; a tapestry design for a sheikh’s palace in Kuwait; aluminium reliefs for two Cambridge colleges; screens for the Royal Military Chapel, Birdcage Walk; and most recently a relief sculpture for the new Nottingham theatre.” So busy was Clarke, by now in his late 30s, that he was rumoured to travel between projects by helicopter.
What happened next is neatly spelled out by the Tate’s holdings of his work. Of the 10 sculptures and prints by Clarke in the gallery’s collection, all but one date from the 1950s; the 10th, an aluminium table-sculpture called Block with Eight Pieces, was made in 1964 and acquired in 1965. None of the works is currently on show. In godless days, Clarke’s strong and early identification with what might broadly be called Christian spirituality did his subsequent career few favours. He was not the only artist to suffer in this way. Some of the other young contributors to Coventry Cathedral paid for their association with the project and with the older names linked to it: John Piper, Graham Sutherland, Jacob Epstein.'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ricky Ross - In The End.
No comments:
Post a Comment