Night Orchids

A stunning catalogue of 267 drawings and paintings depicting nocturnal orchids by British artist Sir Brian Clarke.

Between the hours of around 7pm and midnight on most evenings, Brian Clarke draws and paints on paper at his home in West London. The subjects of these works change over time, but they are made obsessively over periods usually lasting between two and three years. Between December 2013 and August 2015, night-flowering orchids became the subject. Beginning on a visit to Thailand and continuing in France, the series Night Orchids comprises pieces mostly created in the comfort of Clarke’s home.

The urge that drives these nights is curiosity, reflected in the startling variety of pieces that make up this series. The varied iconography—in this instance, of Night Orchids— inflected throughout his work: in his explorations with Fleur de Lys, Spitfires, The Cross, Industrial Architecture, etc., generates an apparently endless sequence of questions “about the nature of beauty and the void in which it flourishes”.

This luxurious, elegantly-bound edition brings together the complete works from this period, revealing Brian Clarke’s ongoing fascination with elements of the natural world through a lesser known medium of the artist’s practice—calligraphic line drawings executed on black paper.

Showcasing the complete works, Night Orchids features an exclusive interview between Clarke and renowned American critic Robert Storr.