What makes me, me...

Brian Clarke at his Gallery Oldham exhibition

3 More Image(s) In Gallery

Reporter MARINA BERRY explores the inspiration that drives internationally-acclaimed Oldham-born artist Brian Clarke.
Brian Clarke has produced paintings, drawings and collages and created an enormous number of his trademark stained glass windows and walls for landmark buildings around the world.

He has combined forces with some of the globe’s greatest architects and is sought after to add his highly distinctive creative style to many new buildings.

His work illuminates a cathedral in Sweden, synagogues in Germany, Stansted Airport, a restaurant in Tokyo, the old thermal baths in Buxton, a 25,000 metre piazza in Dublin, a shopping mall in Rio, Pfizer’s HQ in New York and even the “Pyramid of Peace and Reconciliation” in Kazakhstan, to name just a few.

Last week he was in town to talk at Gallery Oldham about his work, currently to be seen in the exhibition Brian Clarke, Born in Oldham 1953.

Brian, who created the stained glass for the Spindles shopping centre roof, was raised in Limeside in what he called a “traditional and unextraordinary way.”

He went to Oldham School of Art, and more recently returned home to receive one of University Centre Oldham’s first honorary degrees.

He spoke of his passion for the town - something etched more deeply than any of the life-changing experiences that have come with worldwide fame.

“I remember standing with my back to Hartshead Pike and seeing one of the most magnificent scenes I have ever seen in my life,” he said.

“I’ve been to a lot of places in the world and I can’t bring to my mind anything that has had the impact on my character and who I am, as those cotton mills in those early days.”

Now approaching his 60th birthday and resident in Kensington, London, Brian was speaking of his memory of a view of Oldham which offered tiled rooftops, tightly packed mill chimneys and plumes of smoke spiralling into the sky.

He added: “When you are young and wherever you come from, you are created out of the things you see, the things you hear, and the things you conceptually see in your mind.

“A cotton mill can become a symbolic metaphor for greatness, a model of extraordinary power and that is what made me, me.”

He went on “The great thing about being an artist is there are no rules. I have attempted to reach out in as many directions as possible and never been restricted or controlled by anything orthodox.”

He told the gallery audience of the virtues of ageing: “When I was young I thought I had to stick to an idea and flog it to death until such times as I was flogged to death.

“There is not much to say for getting older, but one advantage of age is you stop caring about what anybody thinks. I’ve got that in bucketloads now!”

The exhibition at Gallery Oldham includes - seenin public for the first time - some of Brian’s new work featuring the mills.

Clarke draws every day, and part of the exhibition is of his recent drawings and collages - all of which use the vibrant colour his glass works are known for.