Christopher Le Brun: Desert Window
Title: Desert Window
Artist: Christopher Le Brun (b. 1951)
Location: Faith Centre, London School of Economics (interfaith)
Date: 2014
The Desert Window was commissioned in 2014 for the LSE’s new Faith Centre, an interfaith worship space as well as a centre for rigorous interreligious dialogue, research and training. The window’s subject points to the significance of the desert both as a place of spiritual intensity for many religions, and as a place of ‘inter-religious encounter’, in the words of the chaplain, the Revd Dr James Walters. The window thus expresses the role of the Faith Centre as a ‘place of stillness for all people, where different religious groups can “set up camp” for a while, but also a place to encounter people of other faiths, to hear their stories and to share hospitality.’
Le Brun’s design, which was realised by the German studio Glasmalerei Peters, does not depict the desert figuratively, but draws instead on the idea of the desert as a place of contrasts, of heat and of cold. These are translated here into the language of painting and of colour, with a bright red at the far left and a deep blue at the right of the window which meet in the central pane, forming a loose, spreading shaft of light. It is a moment of encounter, but also of transcendence and transformation. An altar, lectern and credence table were designed in 2016 by Jamie Gilchrist to be placed in front of the window.
Sir Christopher Le Brun was born in Portsmouth in 1951 and studied at the Slade School of Art and the Chelsea School of Art. Known primarily as a painter, he has exhibited in many significant surveys of international art, including Nuova Immagine, Milan (1981), Zeitgeist, Berlin (1982), Avant-garde in the Eighties, Los Angeles (1987), and Contemporary Voices at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2005). Between 2011 and 2019 he was President of the Royal Academy, and he was knighted for services to art in 2021.
Further Information
Medium: Glass
Permanent display; for access please email faithcentre@lse.ac.uk.
See Christopher Le Brun’s Desert Window on the Ecclesiart map here.
Other artworks in churches by Christopher Le Brun: The Good Samaritan and The Prodigal Son, Liverpool Cathedral.