Do not let the search be hurried no matter how late it is. To search is enough.
– Geoffrey Clarke, 1998
Pangolin London presents a rare exhibition of late works by Geoffrey Clarke, made from the late 1980s onwards, to feature a series of previously unseen paintings, alongside wooden assemblages, aluminium sculpture, and silver jewellery. Extension will consider Clarke the colourist and will reflect on the constants which run through and sustained his life’s work: his preoccupation with finding the three dimensional within the two dimensional, the expanding field of sculpture, the creation of a visual language, and art as spiritual imperative.
Geoffrey Clarke’s distinctive language of sign and symbol is one of the most recognisable amongst sculptors working in Britain in the twentieth century. During a prolific career lasting over fifty years, he experimented with making art from different materials – from iron to aluminium, stained glass to wood – and on a variety of scales, working on more public commissions than any other artist in the post-war period, including Henry Moore. While these public commissions waned in his later years, Clarke's infinite curiosity and desire to make art in a private capacity never diminished, as this exhibition will testify.
As part of Extension, Pangolin London looks forward to presenting work made by the faculty at Glasgow School of Art in response to Clarke’s Crown of Thorns, situated in Linlithgow, Scotland. This project, titled Re-Inspired, illuminates the continuing influence of Geoffrey Clarke, and the relevance of his work and ideas within contemporary discourse.
