Brian Clarke

From Wikipedia:

Sir Brian Clarke Hon FRIBA CF (2 July 1953 – 1 July 2025) was a British painter, architectural artist, designer and printmaker, known for his large-scale stained glass and mosaic projects, symbolist paintings, set designs, and collaborations with major figures in modern and contemporary architecture.

Born to a working-class family in Oldham, in the north of England, and a full-time art student on scholarship by age 13, Clarke came to prominence in the late 1970s as a painter and figure of the Punk movement and designer of stained glass. By 1980, he had become a major figure in international contemporary art, the subject of several television documentaries and a café society regular. He was known for his architectonic art, prolific output in various media, friendships with key cultural figures,[a] and polemical lectures and interviews.

His practice in architectural and autonomous stained glass, often on a monumental scale, has led to successive innovation and invention in the development of the medium.[b] This includes the creation of stained glass without lead and the subsequent pioneering of a ‘dramatically enhanced Pointillism’ in glass, as well as the creation of sculptural stained glass works, analogous to collage, made primarily or entirely of lead. The latter two advances are described as having taken stained glass as an art form to its zero-point in each direction: absolute transparency and complete opacity.[c]

A lifelong exponent of the integration of art and architecture, his architectural collaborations include work with Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Arata Isozaki, Oscar Niemeyer, I. M. Pei, César Pelli, and Renzo Piano. He served a seven-year term as chairman of The Architecture Foundation and served on the Design Review Committee of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. His artistic collaborations have included work with David Bailey, Hugh Hudson, Malcolm McLaren, and with Linda McCartney and Paul McCartney. […]

Paul and Linda McCartney first met British artist Brian Clarke in the 1970s, introduced by their mutual friend and influential art dealer Robert Fraser. The connection would spark a decades-long creative collaboration and friendship.

Brian Clarke’s first collaboration with Paul came with the artwork for the 1982 album “Tug of War”. In 1989, he contributed to the design of the album “Flowers in the Dirt”, and also created the artwork for the covers of the single “Figure of Eight.”

Brian Clarke also created the stage designs for The Paul McCartney World Tour in 1989/1990 and for The New World Tour in 1993.

Between 1994 and 1998, Brian Clarke and Linda McCartney created three series of stained glass artworks that seamlessly blended mouth-blown glass and black and white photography. These works — primarily conceived as standalone pieces — were the result of an innovative process the two artists developed themselves, in which Linda’s photographs were silkscreened onto hand-crafted glass.

Their artistic partnership was celebrated in the 1997 book “Collaborations.” That same year, their joint creations were exhibited at the Vitromusée Romont — the Swiss National Museum of Stained Glass — marking one of Linda’s final public artistic endeavors before her passing in 1998.

Following Linda’s death in 1998, Clarke delivered a message during her memorial service on June 8, reflecting the depth of their friendship and artistic bond.

In 1999, Paul McCartney released “Working Classical,” a collection of orchestral arrangements of his compositions. In the CD booklet, each piece was accompanied by artwork; for “A Leaf,” the chosen image was one of Linda and Brian’s luminous stained glass collaborations.

Clarke’s contributions to Paul’s art extended into the new millennium as well. In 2005, he provided a series of line drawings for the CD booklet of “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.” Those drawings were also featured in the accompanying bonus DVD of the album’s Special Edition, where an animated short titled “Line Art” brought his illustrations to life. A separate drawing by Clarke was used for the cover of the album’s lead single, “Fine Line.”

Whenever Linda called me on the phone, I left the conversation feeling happier, even when I was low or she was low, just being in contact with her made me happy. She meant the world to me. And I am terrified of horses – terrified. Have you ever seen how big a horse is? They are big buggers. They’ve got big mouths with hundreds of teeth in them. I’ve always been frightened of horses, and it was a level of trust I had in Linda that I got on that horse – and I loved it. She lead me around and I felt really like, King Kong. She was my beloved friend.

Brian Clarke – Brian in conversation, 2019, from The Art of Light

Brian Clarke was a dear friend of our family whom we had known for years. Sadly, he passed away recently but we all have lovely memories of the times we had together. We always laughed.

Brian often had some great artistic endeavours to show or talk to us about. He made some stained glass windows for us and did a great collaboration with Linda using her photographs to make stained glass pictures out of.

He was commissioned to make stained glass for Bahrain Airport (Concordia), Stansted Airport (a collaboration with Sir Norman Foster), and Queen Victoria Street Arcade in Leeds, and these are just some of the works he was famous for.

Ever since I met him in the 70s with Robert Fraser the art dealer, we always had the best times together. We will all miss him but have fond memories of him to cherish and his incredible artwork to remind us of Brian himself.

Love,
Paul

Paul McCartney – From Facebook, July 8, 2025