You might know if you’re a regular reader that we’re quite interested in celebrating artists and creatives who sometimes go unsung, but have helped The Beatles as a band or solo to achieve their artistic vision.
One such talented and long-time collaborator passed away last week.
His name was Sir Brian Clarke, a British painter, architectural artist, designer and printmaker, best known for his large-scale stained glass, tapestry, ceramics and mosaic projects. He was also known for his symbolist paintings and stage designs.
His artistic collaborations have included work with David Bailey, Hugh Hudson, Malcolm McLaren, and also with Linda and Paul McCartney. In fact, he was a firm friend of theirs and Paul has paid tribute to him this week in his socials:
Brian Clarke’s first public collaboration with McCartney was his striking cover and label art for Paul’s 1982 album, Tug of War.
Clarke designed the cover, producing an abstract painting in oil on canvas that incorporated a painted portrait into the cover from a photograph by Linda McCartney of Paul in the recording studio. The geometric elements of the painting, which he calls ‘reticules’, were used in promotional material for the release, incorporated throughout the vinyl and CD booklets by Hipgnosis, and also appeared on the vinyl labels:
Clarke also designed and fabricated a series of Tug of War stained glass panels in different colours and treatments:
Each artwork is made of mouth-blown glass and these stained glass panels make a cameo appearance in the music video for the single from the album, ‘Take It Away’. You can see them briefly from about 3’10 in, during the scene set in the bar:
Interestingly, the style Clarke used for Tug of War is also evident in his paintings from the time as well, for example this one from 1982 – a series called The Rome Paintings:
Clarke collaborated again with the McCartney’s in 1989 when he contributed to the cover artwork of the album Flowers In The Dirt:
His concept again paired Clarke’s paintings and compositions (this time of of cut flowers) with Linda McCartney’s photography, producing a collaborative series of canvases and pictures. The photographs were shown at Linda’s Flowers in the Dirt exhibition at the Mayor Gallery, London, in 1989.
“I got the idea for the Flowers in the Dirt cover when I was staying at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. I did a sketch and a faxed it back to Paul. He said he was interested and wanted to see it developed. By then I was in New Delhi and I did the painting there. I flew back with it one Thursday night and Linda and I went into the studio the following day, laid the flowers on the canvas – which was still wet – and worked on it until we got it right.”
His art also adorned the press materials released to promote the album:
Brian also designed the stage sets for the The Paul McCartney World Tour, which accompanied the Flowers in the Dirt release:
These were huge works that hung behind the band on stage:
Clarke’s stage designs were also incorporated into The Paul McCartney World Tour posters and souvenir concert tour programs:
His other record cover art from this time includes the design for the cover of the single ‘Figure of Eight’, taken from the Flowers in the Dirt LP:
Brian Clarke also created stage designs for The New World Tour in 1993. His painted stage sets and projections included collaged biographical pictures by Linda McCartney, a photographic history of stained glass, and appeared on promotional materials designed for the tour. Those hand-painted sets, on canvas and on acoustically transparent scrims, became the world’s largest-ever stage sets, and are Clarke’s largest ever paintings:
“The main sets were painted, and the projections included a collage I made of photographs of my favourite works in stained glass from the 11th century to the present day, used by Paul as the backdrop to ‘Let It Be’. Somehow the imagery and the rolling depth of colour across the enormous stage morphed perfectly with the religious mood that is always provoked when one listens to that remarkable song.”
Then in 1997, not long before Linda’s death, she and Clarke held a joint exhibition called Collaborations. It showed works by both artists and collaborative pieces in which Linda’s photos were silk screened onto mouth-blown glass using a process of their own devising.
“Linda McCartney, working with her friend, the artist Brian Clarke, is helping to spearhead a revival of an art form that has been dormant for more than 100 years – stained-glass photography. They have been secretly working for three years on reviving the technique, which was last in vogue in the 1880s, and which Clarke has experimented with once before. They have now produced a number of stained glass photographs, including a set of portraits of Sir Paul McCartney as well as other celebrities, friends, flowers and urban landscapes.” (The Independent, February 1998)
As a mark of the long friendship and artistic association he had with the McCartney family Brian was amongst a select few to deliver a message during Linda’s memorial service on June 8, 1998.
Then, in 1999, Paul McCartney released Working Classical, an album of his orchestral and chamber music. On it was a composition called ‘A Leaf’. In the CD booklet the notes about each work is accompanied by a creative image. For ‘A Leaf’ it was a photo of one of Linda and Brian’s stained glass works……
Jump forward another six years to the 2005 McCartney album, Chaos and Creation In The Backyard. The front cover image is a photo taken by Paul’s brother Mike McCartney. But inside the CD booklet, and in the vinyl edition, there are featured numerous line drawings by Brian Clarke:
The Special Edition CD came with a bonus DVD with a few extras, including an 11’30 animated film called Line Art featuring Brian’s drawings accompanied by instrumental tracks of the songs ‘Riding to Vanity Fair’, ‘At the Mercy’ and ‘Anyway’. The single that was taken from the album ‘Fine Line’ also featured Clarke’s work on the front cover:
Vale Brian Clarke, 2 July,1953 – 1 July, 2025.
His work in stained glass, painting and sculpture has been shown widely internationally, and can also be found in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Tate Gallery in London.
He was awarded a Knighthood in January 2024, becoming the first stained glass artist to be honoured for a medium that has significantly shaped the course of British art.
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