Geoffrey Clarke (1924–2014)

Sculptor, etcher, and designer in stained glass and mosaic, born Geoffrey Cyril Petts Clarke on 28 November 1924 in Darley Dale, Derbyshire. He studied at Preston School of Art, 1940–41, and Manchester School of Art, 1941–42. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War (he served in the RAF, 1943–46), after which he spent a year at Lancaster and Morecambe School of Arts and Crafts, finishing off at the Royal College of Art, 1948–52. Clarke won the Silver Medal at the Milan Triennale, 1951, and appeared at the Venice Biennales of 1952 and 1960. His first solo exhibition was at Gimpel Fils in 1952 and a touring retrospective of his works was organised by Ipswich Museums and Galleries, 1994–45. Clarke taught at Colchester School of Art, and he was head of the Light Transmission and Projection Department at the Royal College of Art (1969–73). He was central to the iron sculpture trend of the early 1950s, executing an abstract sculpture in this material in 1952 for the Time-Life Building, Bond Street, London. In 1955 he produced his last sculptures in iron and his first in bronze, and in 1957 began using aluminium. His public commissions include a considerable amount of work for Coventry Cathedral, comprising nave windows (1953–58); a cross for the Chapel of the Cross (1958); and the High Altar Set, the Crown of Thorns for the Chapel of Christ the Servant and the Flying Cross for the cathedral’s fleche (1962). Other publicly sited works include The Sirens (iron and reconstituted stone, 1955), in the garden of Red Studio, Britten-Pears Library, Aldeburgh, Suffolk; The Spirit of Electricity (bronze, 1958), for Thorn House (now Orion House), Upper St Martin’s Lane, London; Battersea I (aluminium, 1962), at Loughborough University (purchased by the Leicestershire Education Authority in 1965); Cross Theme (aluminium, 1962), over the entrance to the chapel, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester; Relief (aluminium, 1963), for Nottingham Playhouse; Triunii and Uniforge (aluminium, 1966), for the Farm Credit Bank, St Paul, Minnesota; and Relief (‘Bubble Chamber Tracks’) (aluminium, 1968), for the University of Liverpool. The restoration of Clarke’s Spiral Nebula (aluminium, 1962), which stands outside the Herschel Physics Building, King’s College, University of Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, by his son, Jonathan Clarke, won the 2013 PMSA Marsh Award for Conservation. Clarke was elected ARA on 24 April 1970 and RA on 9 December 1975. Examples of his work are in the collections of the Arts Council, Tate Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, and in the Leeds Sculpture Collections.

Bibliography: P. Black, Geoffrey Clarke, Symbols for Man: Sculpture and Graphic Work 1949–94, Ipswich, 1994; D. Buckman, Artists in Britain since 1945 (2 vols: A–L, M–Z), Bristol, 2006; T. Cavanagh, Public Sculpture of Leicestershire and Rutland, Liverpool, 2000, pp. 95, 203–04, 334, 360; T. Cavanagh, Public Sculpture of Liverpool, Liverpool, 1997, pp. 215–17, 325; R. Cocke, Public Sculpture of Norfolk and Suffolk, Liverpool, 2013, pp. xix, xx, 173, 180, 182, 190, 215–16, 233–34, 275;  A. Elliott, ‘Clarke, Geoffrey Cyril Petts (1924–2014)’, ODNB, 2018; The Guardian (online), 6 November 2014 (obituary by Charles Darwent); J. Legrove, Geoffrey Clarke Sculptor. Catalogue Raisonné, London, 2017; G.T. Noszlopy, Public Sculpture of Warwickshire, Coventry & Solihull, Liverpool, 2003, pp. 113–14, 193, 250; Royal Academy of Arts website: ‘Geoffrey Clarke RA (1924–2014)’; J. Seddon et al, Public Sculpture of Sussex, Liverpool, 2014, pp. xvi, 111, 115; The Times, 19 November 2014, p. 63 (obituary); P. Usherwood et al, Public Sculpture of North-East England, Liverpool, 2000, pp. 93, 142–43, 319–20; P. Ward-Jackson, Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster. Volume 1, Liverpool, 2011, pp. xix, xli, 64, 119–20, 441.

Philip Ward-Jackson, 2011; revised, Terry Cavanagh, November 2024