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The British Society of Master Glass Painters is deeply saddened by the news of Sir Brian Clarke’s death on 1st July 2025. Sir Brian, whose knighthood was announced in the King’s New Year’s Honours List in 2024, was a lifelong champion of the art of stained glass and unquestionably the best-known and most accomplished British contemporary exponent of the art form.

 

Born into a working-class family in Oldham, Lancashire, he was introduced to stained glass while a student at North Devon College of Art & Design. Although he produced much distinguished work in other media, stained glass would remain the abiding passion of his creative life. In his early career in the 1970s – during the ‘Punk’ era of popular culture, Clarke’s uncompromising and often polemical work brought him to the attention of leading architects, artists and critics.  His abstract, constructivist aesthetic appealed especially to prominent international architects, leading to large-scale collaborations with, amongst others, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, I. M. Pei, Zaha Hadid, Cesar Pelli and Oscar Niemeyer. His most recent stained glass installation – Concordia – was unveiled at Bahrain International Airport in April of this year. Clarke’s major retrospective exhibition in London, A Great Light (at the Newport Street Gallery, 2023-2024), was a landmark event in modern stained glass.

 

Clarke gave generous support to the BSMGP’s Journal of Stained Glass and, as an enthusiastic and informed collector of historic stained glass and glazing designs, he particularly valued its scholarly articles on the history of the art and its craft techniques. Over the years he also occasionally contributed as an author.

 

Sir Brian Clarke’s knighthood was notably the first to be awarded to a British artist whose work has been primarily in stained glass. The BSMGP wishes to express its deep sympathy and condolences to Sir Brian’s family and friends.

 

Peter Cormack MBE FSA HonFMGP

Vice-President, British Society of Master Glass Painters