FRAGMENT

Brief description: Fragment (1956-59), a sculptural panel in glass and lead by Geoffrey Clarke

Fragment (circa 1956-59) is a sculptural piece in glass and lead sheet, which experiments with surface texture and three-dimensional abstract form. Together with a companion panel entitled Embryo (now lost), Fragment was included in the highly publicised British Artist Craftsmen’ exhibition organised by the Smithsonian Institution that toured the USA in 1959–60. In the upper part of the panel, a cylindrical form of lead sheet penetrates the panel, projecting into both the space in front and behind the panel. Fragment represents one of the earliest appearances of Clarke’s swirling symbolic form, which held both a spiritual and symbolic importance for the artist. The sculptural panel is also contemporary with Clarke’s designs for the multicoloured window Man in Maturity for the nave of Coventry Cathedral. In the context of the development of Clarke’s glass, ‘Fragment’ represents an important stage between his mosaics (1949–55) and the fully three-dimensional works in aluminium and glass for Ipswich Civic College (1961), Crownhill Parish Church (1961), Taunton Crematorium (1963) and Manchester College of Art (1969). Following damage to ‘Embryo’ and its subsequent disappearance, Fragment now constitutes the sole surviving example of Clarke’s early, sculptural work in lead and glass.

Object type: stained glass panel

Number of objects: 1

Production date: 1956-1959

Production period: 20th century, late

Designer: Geoffrey Clarke (1925 - 2014)

Dimensions: Height: 945 mm, Width: 730 mm

Acquisition: purchase 21.1.2014

Acquisition source: Clarke, Geoffrey

Accession number: ELYGM:2014.2