01/10/2026
John Stezaker (b. 1949) is a British artist whose practice is grounded in conceptual art and photographic collage.
Stezaker works with found imagery, principally publicity photographs, film stills and postcards, much of it drawn from classical Hollywood cinema. By cutting and recombining these sources, he produces images of an uncanny character. The joins remain visible, and the original material is never fully concealed, leaving the fragments in a state of tension.
The collection includes two works by Stezaker. In Untitled (Film Portrait Collage) ###, 2007, a single portrait is divided between two different men. In Mask (Film Portrait Collage) CCXIX, 2017, the sitter’s face is replaced by a postcard of Ilkley, Yorkshire. In each case, the eye attempts to resolve the image into a coherent whole but cannot.
Stezaker’s collages draw attention to how much we complete a photograph in the act of looking, and how readily that confidence can be unsettled.
Both works are on display in Fail We May, Sail We Must, now open at The Brown Collection.
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Works:
John Stezaker, Untitled (Film Portrait Collage) ###, 2007, Collage, 59.7 x 45.2 x 17.8 cm
John Stezaker, Mask (Film Portrait Collage) CCXIX, 2017, Collage, 25.3 x 20.5 cm
Phillip Wilson Steer, Blue Period Portrait of a Lady, c. 1900, Painting on canvas, 63.5 x 50.8 cm
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Fail We May, Sail We Must
25.09.2026 - 07.08.2027
The Brown Collection
1 Bentinck Mews, W1U 2AF
Open 10:30 – 18:00, Wednesday – Saturday
Free admission
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