Michael Clark (artist)

Michael Clark (born 1 April 1954) is a contemporary British artist. His work spans a broad range of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, film, photography, installation, video, performance and artist's books. Clark was born in Manchester and lives and works in London.

Michael Clark
Born (1954-04-01) April 1, 1954
Manchester
NationalityBritish
Websitehttp://www.michaelclark.info/

Life and work

In 1977 Clark met Muriel Belcher and Francis Bacon in The Colony Room club in Soho.[1] Clark's portrait of Belcher on her deathbed (Muriel Belcher Ill in bed) was part of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1981, and won the Charles Wollaston Award. At the suggestion of Valerie Beston, of Marlborough Fine Art, Clark made the first of a series of portraits of Bacon, one of which is in the British Museum's collection. "Michael Clark's portraits of Bacon emphasise the sad preoccupation of his sagging face, with eyes deep in concussed hollows grimly contemplating mortality".[2]

Vanitas (1990-1992), Clark's double-sided portrait of Lisa Stansfield, was part of The Portrait Now exhibition held from 1993–1994 at the National Portrait Gallery. "Both the theme of the wound and the title 'Vanitas' make references to mortality. Clark was partly inspired by a Renaissance painting — also double-sided — by Barthel Bruyn the Elder."[3] Since 1994, Clark's Five Wounds[4] have been on permanent display at Chichester Cathedral, alongside works by Graham Sutherland, John Piper and Marc Chagall.

"In some the glaze is so heavy that their raised and gleaming beads of crimson appear to flow. In others pieces of yellow 'bone' seem to rise beneath the skin. Any initial revulsion soon gives way to enchantment. [...] In the Wounds the viewer comes face to face with the very real nature of Christ's suffering and consequently with our own mortality. 'These works are forms to meditate upon' explains the artist. 'A trigger-release mechanism; a way of opening up.'"[5]

Maria Balshaw, director of the Tate, listed Clark's portrait of filmmaker Derek Jarman, The Gardener (1994), as one of her favourite works in the collection of the Whitworth Art Gallery.[6] “Michael Clark drew the film-maker towards the end of his life, when he was a man facing sickness and death. The drawing has a distinct and immediate impact, foregrounding as it does the quality of personal courage of the sitter. You are powerfully drawn to the face, you have a sense that the sitter trusted the artist to see into the eyes, to do much more than observe …”[7] After purchasing Seer (1993), a grisaille portrait of Derek Jarman, in 1995,[8] the National Portrait Gallery commissioned Clark, in 1999, to make a portrait of the filmmaker Nicolas Roeg. Clark delivered Al-Jebr, a kinetic assemblage[9] made of mixed media portraying Roeg, which in Arabic means 'the bringing together of broken parts'.[10] The art collection of Valerie Beston was sold at Christie's in February 2006 and included ten works by Clark.[11] The accompanying catalogue stated:

"Bacon’s influence threads through his [Clark's] works, reappearing even in his conceptual pieces. Be it in the appearance of wounds in his paintings, or in the location of a ‘sound sculpture’ outside a sex shop that Bacon used to frequent (only in part to cash his cheques), his ghostly spectre appears again and again, if only obliquely, in his figurative and conceptual works. For Clark is not a portraitist, although he has created many portraits of people ranging from film directors to the characters of Soho of yesterday to Royalty to Pop royalty. He is a conceptual artist, for whom the painstakingly accurate depiction of the human face is only one of his means or media, and conversation with him ranges from the diverse influences of Rimbaud and Nauman as well as Holbein and Rembrandt."[12]

In his book, Francis Bacon in Your Blood, art historian Michael Peppiatt writes:

"A feature article[2] came out a while ago in the Observer in which the author, Peter Conrad, interviewed three men who had been close to Francis Bacon in their youth. He described each of them as having been 'burnt' for life by their contact with the painter. The implication was that you did not survive the influence of a genius as dark and powerful as Bacon. The three men were the photographer Peter Beard, the artist Michael Clark, and myself."[13]

Selection of works
  • Muriel Belcher Ill in bed (1978-80). Oil on canvas. Private collection.
  • Reece Mews interior London (1982). Mixed media. Collection Museum of London.
  • Study for Reece Mews Interior (Francis Bacon's studio) (1982-3). Pencil, acrylic, watercolour, ink and pastel on paper. 20.9 cm x 9.8 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum.[14]
  • Francis Bacon (early 1980s). Pencil on paper. British Museum.[15]
  • Francis Bacon (1984-5). Oil on canvas. Private collection, formally in the collection of the late Valerie Beston.
  • Colony Room Suite (1988). Photomechanical prints. British Museum.
  • Untitled Wound (1990-1991). Oil on calico. Victoria and Albert Museum.[16]
  • Wounds of Love (early 1990s). Mixed media including hypodermic needles and stainless steel ring on paper. British Museum.
  • Vanitas, Portrait of Lisa Stansfield (1990-1992). Oil on canvas with ecclesiastical velvet. Private collection.[3]
  • Seer, Portrait of Derek Jarman (1993). Oil on card. 451 mm x 333 mm. National Portrait Gallery.[8]
  • The Gardener, Portrait of Derek Jarman (1994). Mixed media on paper with botanical specimens. Whitworth Art Gallery.[17]
  • Five Wounds (1994). Oil on card mounted on wood. On permanent display at Chichester Cathedral.[18]
  • Geometry Of Healing (1995). Site-specific sculpture. St. James's Church, 197 Piccadilly, London W1, June - July 1995.
  • Al-Jebr, Portrait of Nicolas Roeg (1999). Kinetic assemblage commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery. Mixed media including, oil on canvas, human hair, hypodermic needles, lead, gold leaf, meteorite, glass, beeswax and bee. 508 mm high. National Portrait Gallery.[10]
  • 10:07-09 (2002). Site-specific digital projection onto the great west door of Winchester Cathedral during Holy week.
  • Drawing Breath (2002). Site-specific sound sculpture. Janus, 40 Old Compton Street, Soho, London.[19][20]
  • Every Man and Every Woman is a Star (2008-2009). Diamonds, silver, meteorite. Height: 184 mm total height from top of square to base of rod, Width: 57 mm square, Depth: 9 mm. Victoria and Albert Museum.[21]
  • Beautiful Dreamer: Perhaps Eye Sleep and Dream U (2009). Video, 14', colour with sound.[22]

Selected public collections

References
  1. "'When Bacon is in your bloodstream he never leaves you', 24 August 2015, Today - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  2. Peter Conrad (10 August 2008). "The power and the passion". The Observer. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  3. Christopher Howse (13 November 1993). "Beautiful Wounds". The Spectator. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  4. "Flesh and Bones Unites Oxford and Chichester – Toovey's Blog". blog.tooveys.com. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  5. Iain Gale (28 March 1994). "The word made flesh: Michael Clark's paintings of wounds are now on display at Chichester Cathedral. Iain Gale views his 'conceptual Crucifixion'". The Independent. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  6. "The Influencers: February 2015". Axisweb. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  7. "For Derek". Colour/ "Chroma". 31 January 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  8. National Portrait Gallery. "Derek Jarman ('Seer')". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  9. Glossary of art terms. "Assemblage". National Portrait Gallery.
  10. National Portrait Gallery. "Nicholas Roeg ('al-jebr')". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  11. Harriet Lane (29 January 2006). "Harriet Lane reveals passions beneath calm exterior of Miss Valerie Beston, Francis Bacon's trusted gallery administrator". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  12. Christie's International Media Division (February 2006). "The Collection of The Late Miss Valerie Beston: Artists from the London School". Auction Catalogue: 72.
  13. Michael Peppiatt, Michael (2015). Francis Bacon in Your Blood. UK: Bloomsbury Circus. ISBN 978-1408856246.
  14. Victoria & Albert Museum. "Study for Reece Mews Interior (Francis Bacon's Studio)". collections.vam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  15. British Museum. "Drawing of Francis Bacon". British Museum. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  16. Victoria & Albert Museum. "Untitled Wound". collections.vam.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  17. Samantha Manton (2016). "The Gardener Digs in Another Time" (PDF).
  18. P.N.Moore (2015). The Bullet Point Book of Chichester Art. Chichester, United Kingdom: Rivers Books. pp. 17–19. ISBN 978-0954306489.
  19. "Take a Deep Breath symposium audio recordings | Tate". www.tate.org.uk. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  20. "Ears Have Walls: On Hearing Art - Steven Connor". stevenconnor.com. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  21. Victoria & Albert Museum. "Every Man and Every Woman is a Star (Sculpture)". collections.vam.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  22. "Beautiful Dreamer: Perhaps Eye Sleep and Dream U - Taster". Vimeo. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  23. "Collection search: You searched for michael clark". British Museum. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  24. "Michael Clark - Person - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  25. "The new-look Whitworth Art Gallery: Director Maria Balshaw on the £15 million development | Culture24". www.culture24.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  26. "Explore the Royal Collection Online". www.royalcollection.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  27. "Museum of London | free museums in London | things to do in London". collections.museumoflondon.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  28. "Michael Clark (b.1954) | Art UK". www.artuk.org. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  29. "Michael Clark, Portrait of Philip Stroud". Pallant House Gallery Magazine 15. 21 June 2008. p. 52. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  30. Victoria & Albert Museum. "Every Man and Every Woman is a Star (drawing)". collections.vam.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  31. Victoria & Albert Museum. "Search the Collections - Michael Clarke". collections.vam.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  32. Gagosian Gallery (Ed.) (2015). Francis Bacon: Late Paintings. Gagosian Gallery. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-8478-4775-4.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

Further reading
  • Geoffrey Macnab on Clark's Drawing Breath and finding Rimbaud's legacy in Soho. 'Loose vowels', The Guardian, 2 December 2002.
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