Geoffrey Clarke rose to prominence at the Festival of Britain in 1951 and at the Venice Biennale the following year. Renowned for his fearless experimentation with industrial materials, he became a pioneer of mid-century British sculpture by developing a revolutionary method of casting aluminium from carved models of expanded polystyrene.

While Clarke is best known for his large-scale public commissions, such as the breathtaking nave windows for Coventry Cathedral, Embryo I represents a rare intersection of his passions for both stained glass and sculpture. This circular composition, created the same year as his Crown of Thorns and Flying Cross for Coventry, directly relates to an experimental window designed for the architect Frankland Dark in 1956. Returning to this distinctive format a few years later, Clarke used a highly refined version of his open-mould aluminium casting process to frame the vibrant glass work.

Since the vast majority of Clarke’s stained-glass pieces are permanently housed in public and ecclesiastical collections, Embryo I offers an exceptional opportunity to see a significant stained-glass sculpture of his on an intimate scale in the gallery.