PRUNELLA CLOUGH (1919-1999)

A recurrent theme in Clough’s oeuvre, between 1979 and 1982, were her ‘gate’ paintings. The first of these appears to have been Black Gate, 1979 which simply presents a black rectangular frame opening on to an atmospheric white ground. But the concept of the gate triggered many experiments. A source for Small Gate Painting VII appears to have been a black-and-white photograph, taken by her of factory gates, and which is reproduced on p. 125 in Frances Spalding’s Prunella Clough: Regions Unmapped. Clough’s photographs of industrial settings only ever acted, she said, as ‘approximate aids to memory’. But the thick diagonal bars holding in place the gate’s internal wire mesh are echoed in this painting, where they strengthen the design and are countered by the delicacy of touch elsewhere in this canvas.

We are very grateful to Frances Spalding for preparing this catalogue entry.