Bypass I
- Artist: Prunella Clough
- Date: 1960
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Bypass I” by Prunella Clough. Painted in 1960 with oil on canvas, it sits at the crossroads of her shift toward pure abstraction. Clough insisted all her work sprang from “the richness of the outside world,” and you can feel that pulse here. The composition feels like a microscopic cross‑section of an organism—tiny, swirling cellular forms that could also echo technical diagrams or the guts of a machine, which fascinated her at the time. Because there’s no clear scale, the canvas invites two readings: either an aerial sweep over a landscape, or a map of a vast expanse, both seen through a lens that makes the familiar feel oddly strange. She wanted to see the world “as if it were strange and unfamiliar,” and that intention comes through in the way the shapes interlock and shift. The brushwork is energetic yet controlled, letting the color and form breathe. In a single glance, you’re pulled into a layered visual dialogue between biology, technology, and the broader environment—an invitation to look again and discover the extraordinary in the everyday.
See it in person
Bypass I hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
