Buildings
- Artist: Brian Clarke
- Date: 1981
- Medium: Screenprint on paper
- Dimensions: image: 1005 x 698 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Buildings” by Brian Clarke, created in 1981. It’s a screenprint on paper that presents a layered grid of geometric forms – straight lines, blocks and tower‑shaped figures that echo cityscapes but stay abstract. The prints were produced at Kelpra Studio and published through Swellfame Ltd and Robert Fraser Gallery; each sheet is watermarked ‘ARCHES FRANCE’ and signed with the artist’s name in bold block letters. Clarke’s work sits squarely inside his 1980s exploration of how mass‑produced graphics can become architectural maps. He layers repeated patterns, shifting scales so that the small panels (about 100 mm by 700 mm) look like building facades when you step back. The piece is part of “The Two Cultures” collection – a grouping that shows how the artist juxtaposes modernist geometry with photographic technique to suggest both construction and its dissolution. Presented to us by Paul Beldock in 1983, it’s an excellent example of how screenprinting can be used not just for posters but as serious art dealing with form and space.
See it in person
Buildings is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
