Fence/Climbing Plant
- Artist: Prunella Clough
- Date: 1978
- Medium: Watercolour and screenprint on paper
- Dimensions: image: 241 x 293 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Fence/Climbing Plant” by Prunella Clough, created in 1978. The work is a screenprint measuring 241 × 293 mm, printed on a larger sheet of paper (291 × 343 mm) and then hand‑colored with watercolour by the artist herself – a process she did not edition a print. The piece was bought in 1984, and it’s currently on display at Tate Britain.
Clough was teaching at Wimbledon School of Art when she produced three related prints. She would set up a sheet in her own studio, bring it to Wimbledon, print the image from a single screen, and then add further drawing or painting. In “Fence/Climbing Plant” the background is a soft, washed grey rubbed with hints of purple and orange. The print blends abstraction with recognisable elements – the fence and a climbing plant – but the overall feel is gestural, non‑representational, and organic.
The print sits in the broader context of her “Gate Detail” and “Gate” works, where she explored similar screen‑printed images but with different hand‑work and colour palettes. The layering of print and watercolour gives the fence a textured, almost living quality that invites the viewer to look beyond the surface and feel the movement of the vines and the subtle play of light and shadow.
See it in person
Fence/Climbing Plant 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.
