The Clark NOW

Kicks off Summer at the Clark with a Clambake

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:11 -0400

Winslow Homer, Sea-Side Sketches—A Clam Bake, 1873

Tuxedos take a back seat to lobster bibs as the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute kicks off summer with a clambake on Saturday, June 8 at 6:30 pm. The gala celebrates the opening of the exhibitions Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History and George Inness: Gifts from Frank and Katherine Martucci. Tickets are $125 ($100 for Clark members) and may be reserved by visiting clarkart.edu.

Guests will enjoy cocktails, a raw bar, and other appetizers, followed by a sumptuous buffet dinner of lobster, clams, barbecued chicken, and many side dishes. Live entertainment includes pianist Bob Werbel, performance artists The Silver Swimmers, and the band The Wandering Rocks, who will sing sea shanties.

Galleries will be open until the close of the event, allowing partygoers to view the Homer and Inness exhibitions a day before they open to the public.

About the Exhibitions
Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History

Robert Sterling Clark declared that Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910) was one of the greatest artists of the nineteenth century. After purchasing his first Homer painting in 1915, Clark began a passion that would last for decades and would become the greatest collection of works of Winslow Homer ever assembled by one person after the artist’s death—and one of the leading collections of any art museum in the United States. This exhibition showcases some sixty oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings, as well as approximately 120 rarely seen wood engravings.

George Inness: Gifts from Frank and Katherine Martucci

This exhibition celebrates the most significant contribution to the Clark’s American art collection since the museum’s founding. Eight paintings by American landscape painter George Inness are presented with two additional works by Inness which were purchased by Sterling Clark and have been a part of the museum’s collection since 1955. The canvases represent an excellent survey of the artist’s late work when Inness moved from the open-air painting and naturalism of his early career toward a more conceptual approach to capturing mood and the play of light and shadow.

About the Clark
Set amidst 140 acres in the Berkshires, the Clark is one of the few major art museums that also serves as a leading international center for research and scholarship. The Clark presents public and education programs and organizes groundbreaking exhibitions that advance new scholarship. The Clark’s research and academic programs include an international fellowship program and conferences. Together with Williams College, the Clark sponsors one of the nation’s leading master’s programs in art history. The Clark receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The galleries are open daily in July and August (open Tuesday through Sunday from September through June), 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $15 June 1 through October 31; free November through May; and free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. For more information, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303. The Clark’s library will be closed for renovation June 1 through September 3, 2013

London's National Theatre Live in HD: This House

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:17:00 -0400

Photo: National Theatre Live/Johan Persson

Set the stage to 1974. The UK faces economic crisis and a hung parliament. In a culture hostile to cooperation, it’s a period when elections are won or lost by one vote, when there are fistfights in bars and when sick MPs are carried through the lobby to register their votes. Set in the political engine rooms of Westminster, James Graham’s biting and energetic new play This House strips politics down to the practical realities of those behind the scenes who roll up their sleeves—and on occasion bend the rules—to maneuver a diverse and conflicting chorus of MPs within the Mother of all Parliaments.

The Clark is pleased to bring a live stream of This House to the museum auditorium this Thursday at at 2pm ET. Tickets are $18 ($15 members and students). Purchase tickets here.

Teen Mural Workshop Coming to the Clark This July

Thu, 09 May 2013 15:00:40 -0400

Teens can learn about art in a big way at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute for a week-long mural workshop in July. “Paint It BIG! Paint It PUBLIC!” will be held daily Monday, July 15 through Friday, July 19 from 10 am to 4 pm. The program is open to children ages 12 to 16. Tuition is $250 ($225 members) including all materials. Space is limited; registration is required. To register, visit clarkart.edu.

Under the tutelage of local artist Andrew Davis, students will create an 8 foot x 16 foot public mural, which will be semi-permanently installed in North Adams in conjunction with the city’s DownStreet Art program.

The mural is based on an adapted rendition of Albrecht Dürer’s famous sixteenth-century woodcut, The Rhinoceros. Students will visit the Clark print room to see the original and learn about Dürer’s fascinating career; learn how to “scale up” a complex image; think about design, color, and message while experiencing working in a large-scale studio environment; and learn about the give-and-take involved in getting public art to the people. Participants will receive public recognition for their efforts when the mural is unveiled in celebration of the arts in Northern Berkshire County.

Students will meet in the Stone Hill Center classroom on the Clark campus. Participants should pack a lunch and a snack, and dress appropriately — art can be messy!

About the Clark

Set amidst 140 acres in the Berkshires, the Clark is one of the few major art museums that also serves as a leading international center for research and scholarship. The Clark presents public and education programs and organizes groundbreaking exhibitions that advance new scholarship. The Clark’s research and academic programs include an international fellowship program and conferences. Together with Williams College, the Clark sponsors one of the nation’s leading master’s programs in art history. The Clark receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The galleries are open daily in July and August (open Tuesday through Sunday from September through June), 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $15 June 9 through October 31; free November through June 8; and free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. For more information, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303. The Clark’s library will be closed for renovation June 1 through September 3, 2013.

Celebrate International Museum Day at the Clark

Tue, 07 May 2013 13:00:13 -0400

Saturday, May 18 is International Museum Day, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is celebrating by allowing the public special access for a bird’s-eye view of the construction activity underway on the campus.

Visitors will enjoy the view from the top floor of the Manton Research Center, where they will be able to see the progress being made on the Visitor, Exhibition and Conference Center (VECC), the Clark’s second building designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando.

Features of the VECC include 10,000 square feet of galleries available for special exhibitions, doubling the current space available; a multi-purpose conference and exhibition space; a family area; a café; and a new Museum Shop. The campus expansion program also incorporates the renovation of the existing museum building and Manton Research Center. A glass entry pavilion will link the Museum building to the new VECC and to outdoor terraces that will overlook a new water feature that is the highlight of the sweeping landscape design for the campus. Expected completion of the expansion project is July 2014.

International Museum Day was organized in 1977 by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) as an effort to underscore the positive impact museums have on society and is sponsored in the U.S. by the Association of Art Museum Directors. Today, some 30,000 museums in 100 countries participate in the event. This year’s theme highlights the positive role museums play in their communities. Clark members – and those who become members on Museum Day – will receive a special commemorative gift.

About the Clark

Free Concert at the Clark by Harpischordist Victor Hill

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:00:37 -0400

Renowned harpsichordist Victor Hill will present a free solo recital at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Sunday, May 5 at 3 pm. Admission is free.

The recital will feature “Goldberg Variations” by J. S. Bach. This work is the culmination of Bach’s harpsichord compositions.

Hill was a professor of mathematics at Williams College for forty years. He studied the harpsichord in Amsterdam with the noted Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt and has played more than 900 concerts throughout the United States and in Europe. Hill plays the double-manual harpsichord of eighteenth-century design that was custom built for him in 1997 by Richard Kingston of Asheville, North Carolina. He tunes the instrument himself in a common eighteenth-century pitch and temperament.

Public Lecture at the Clark: The Art of Edward Hopper

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:34:43 -0400

You’re invited to join us this Sunday, April 28, at 2pm for a very special afternoon with 2012 Clark Prize recipient Brian O’Doherty. O’Doherty’s lecture, “Hopper’s Windows,” offers personal insights into the life of his longtime friend, the enigmatic artist Edward Hopper. O’Doherty will take questions from the audience before introducing Hopper’s Silence, a documentary film he created in 1981. The film, which begins at 3pm, examines Hopper’s paintings and the locations that inspired them, includes footage taken in the artist’s New York City studio as well as interviews with acquaintances.

About Brian O’Doherty
A man of many parts, Brian O’Doherty’s most durable identity has been both as artist and writer. He joined the New York Times as an art critic in 1961, was the editor of Art in America from 1971 to 1974, and has published many critical essays and several books, including Object and Idea, American Masters: the Voice and the Myth; the influential Inside the White Cube: Ideologies of the Gallery Space; and Studio and Cube.

In addition to these achievements, O’Doherty has served as director of both the visual arts and film and media programs at the National Endowment for the Arts; taught film and art criticism at Barnard College and Long Island University; and has written two works of fiction, The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P. and The Deposition of Father McGreevy, which was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2000. He is a recipient of the College Art Association’s Mather Award for art criticism.

As an artist, O’Doherty has exhibited at Documenta and the Venice Biennale and shown widely in Europe and America. He has had several retrospectives, most recently at New York University’s Grey Gallery in 2007. In 2012, the Galerie Thomas Fischer in Berlin hosted his most recent exhibition, where he was a guest of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes. Frequently intrigued by issues of identity, O’Doherty began signing his work under the name Patrick Ireland as a response to the “Bloody Sunday” killings in his native Ireland in 1972. He maintained the pseudonym for 36 years until formally burying the identity after Northern Ireland established an all-party government in 2008.

Trained as a physician, O’Doherty holds a medical degree from University College Dublin and conducted research in experimental psychology at Cambridge University. He earned a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University after emigrating in 1957.

Darby English Named New Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:31:07 -0400

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute today announced the appointment of Darby English, associate professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago, to serve as the next Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program (RAP). English will lead the program’s international agenda of intellectual events and collaborations and will oversee the Clark’s library and its active residential scholars’ program, all based on the Institute’s 140-acre campus.

“Darby English brings a dynamic perspective to the work of the Clark’s Research and Academic Program, rooted in his knowledge of the field of art history—both its traditions and its new critical perspectives,” said Michael Conforti, director of the Clark. “He will build upon the Clark’s extraordinary record of accomplishment achieved during Michael Ann Holly’s fourteen years as director.”

In June 2012, Michael Ann Holly announced plans to conclude her tenure as Starr Director in the summer of 2013. Holly is widely recognized for her leadership in conceptualizing and pioneering RAP’s international series of programs and events. She will remain active in numerous Clark programs and activities in Williamstown and New York.

“The Clark is both a meeting ground and a forum for exchange and debate,” said English. “The Research and Academic Program is fueled by the international scholars who come to Williamstown as Fellows and as participants in its scholarly programs and by its many collaborations with academic programs across the world. I couldn’t be more thrilled by this opportunity to enhance the Clark’s long-established reputation for intellectual leadership in the field.”

Dr. English graduated from Williams College in 1996 with a degree in art history and philosophy and earned a doctorate in visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester in 2002. He has served on the University of Chicago’s faculty since 2003, teaching modern and contemporary art and cultural studies. He served as the assistant director of the Research and Academic Program from 1999 through 2003.

English is the author of How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness (MIT Press, 2007), which has been called a “groundbreaking and lucid book [that] expands the social and intellectual context for recent African-American art.” [Maurice Berger, research professor, University of Maryland Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture]. Dr. English is also a co-editor of Kara Walker: Narratives of a Negress (MIT Press, 2003; republished Rizzoli, 2007). He is currently completing work on a new book, 1971: A Year in the Life of Color, which studies social experiments with modernist art undertaken over a period just prior to that year.

He is the recipient of fellowships, grants, and awards from the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Humanities Center, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Creative Capital Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and the College Art Association, among others. In 2010, English received Chicago’s Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the nation’s oldest such prize.

A seven-member search committee, led by Charles W. “Mark” Haxthausen, the Robert Sterling Clark Professor of Art History at Williams College, oversaw the international search that resulted in English’s selection.

“We had an extraordinarily strong pool of highly qualified candidates for the Starr Directorship,” Haxthausen said, “which underscores the respect and appreciation the scholarly community holds for RAP’s role as a major international forum for the discipline.”

The Clark is one of the few institutions in the world with a dual mission as both an art museum and an independent center for research and higher education in the visual arts. The Research and Academic Program is internationally recognized as one of the leading centers for research in the visual arts and has established collaborations with partner institutions including the Getty Research Institute; the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (France); Institute of Art History of the Estonian Academy of Arts; Power Institute at the University of Sydney; University of the Philippines Diliman; Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong); Asian Civilizations Museum (Singapore); and the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa), among others.

In addition to hosting its fellowship program on the Clark’s Williamstown campus, RAP maintains an active series of conferences, colloquia, symposia, and scholarly conversations presented at venues around the globe. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Getty Foundation have provided generous support to these programs. The Manton Foundation established an endowment to support the activities of the RAP program in 2007; in 2008, the Starr Foundation endowed the program’s directorship.

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Come and trip the light fantastic at our Exposition Universelle...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:22:00 -0500

Come and trip the light fantastic at our Exposition Universelle party tomorrow night at 6 pm … the food and music will be tres chic and the art is magnifique! It’s all part of the celebrations as we open our Electric Paris exhibition. Buy your tickets online at clarkart.edu or at the door!

ROAR! Join us for Family Day this Saturday at noon and satisfy...

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:52:08 -0500

ROAR! Join us for Family Day this Saturday at noon and satisfy your curiosity! Listen to interactive family music, learn about big cats, watch a raptor fly, and examine a real lion! Admission is free.

This Week at the Clark: A weekly guide to movies, music, and...

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 14:47:52 -0400

This Week at the Clark: A weekly guide to movies, music, and special events happening at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

London’s National Theatre Live in HD: The Last of the Haussmans–Thursday, October 11, 2 pm
Stephen Beresford’s The Last of the Haussmans examines the fate of the revolutionary generation and offers a funny, touching, and at times savage portrait of a family full of longing that’s losing its grip. Julie Walters plays Judy Haussman, with Rory Kinnear and Helen McCrory as her wayward offspring. $18 ($15 members and students)Tickets may be purchased online or by calling 413 458 0524.
Met Live in HD: L’Elisir d’Amore–Saturday, October 13, 12:55 pm
The Met Live in HD season begins with a new production of Donizetti’s comic gem L’Elisir d’Amore, directed by Bartlett Sherand conducted by Maurizio Benini. Approximate running time: 125 minutes. Tickets are $25 ($22 members; $18 students) and may be ordered online or by calling 413 458 0MET (458 0638).
Ballet in HD: Moretti and Monteverdi’s Caravaggio–October 14, 1 pm
In this film (2008, 93 min.), recorded live at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Staatsballett Berlin is conducted by Paul Connelly and features stars Beatrice Knop, Polina Semionova, and Vladimir Malakhov. Tickets are $15 ($13 for members and students) and may be ordered online or by calling 413 458 0524.

Subscribe to our e-news blasts to learn more about upcoming events at the Clark.

Flashback Friday: Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s portrait of The...

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:58:22 -0400

Flashback Friday: Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s portrait of The Warrior was among the works on view as part of our show Consuming Passion: Fragonard’s Allegories of Love. The exhibition was on view October 28, 2007 - January 1, 2008 and featured paintings and prints from museums as diverse as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Hammer Museum.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Warrior (Fantasy Portrait), c. 1770
Oil on canvas
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
1964.8

Explore the strange world of Albrecht Durer’s etchings and...

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:00:02 -0400

Explore the strange world of Albrecht Durer’s etchings and engravings: this video of The Four Witches comes from our winter exhibition of his prints.

Albrecht Durer
The Four Witches (Four Naked Women), 1497
Engraving on paper
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
1993.30

For more about Durer, be sure to visit our exhibition microsite.

The Weekly ‘Mix: Every Wednesday, the Clark spotlights one of...

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:57:15 -0400

The Weekly ‘Mix: Every Wednesday, the Clark spotlights one of the visitor-curated galleries from Clark Remix. uCurate is an exciting program that allows anyone to design their own gallery show; starting this fall, the Clark will bring selected virtual shows to life in one of the building’s gallery spaces.

This week’s uCurate show, titled What r u looking @? juxtaposes a variety of styles of sculpture and painting with a dynamic color scheme. We love the combination of Louis-Leopold Boilly and Francois-Joseph Navez’s realistic paintings with Degas’ bronze ballerinas!

Francois-Joseph NavezMusical Group, 1821Oil on canvasThe...

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:59:47 -0400

Francois-Joseph Navez
Musical Group, 1821
Oil on canvas
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
1976.1

Show Us Your Clark Covers! For the past two months, we’ve...

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:58:46 -0400

Show Us Your Clark Covers!

For the past two months, we’ve displayed Clark Covers every Monday - scenes of life around our campus that mirror works of art within the collection. With Halloween just around the corner, we’re opening up the process of covering the Clark to you. With hundreds of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and decorative art in our collection, there’s plenty to take inspiration from. Browse through Clark Remix and our 50 Favorites exhibitions for ideas, then submit your costume on our Tumblr page. We’re excited to see what you create.

Left:
John Singer Sargent
Fumée d’Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambergris), 1880
Oil on canvas
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
1955.15

Right:
A volunteer dresses up (and strikes a pose) as Fumée d’Ambre Gris during the Clark’s “Night at the Museum” event in 2006. Photo credit: Art Evans.

As October begins, the Halloween season kicks into gear with...

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 14:56:59 -0400

As October begins, the Halloween season kicks into gear with tricks, treats, and spooky events. It’s the perfect opportunity to explore an ancient tomb filled with giant guards, mythical beasts, and a stone sarcophagus…we’re referring, of course, to Unearthed. Grab your family and friends for an exhibition that’s a treat: the artifacts on view in Unearthed are on view exclusively at the Clark until October 21, 2012.

Credits:
Sarcophagus
Northern Wei dynasty (386–535 CE), tomb dated 477 CE
Sandstone
Unearthed 2000, tomb of Song Shaozu (d. 477 CE), Caofulou Village, Datong, Shanxi Province
Shanxi Museum, Taiyuan

Two Mounted Military Figures with Cockscomb Headgear
Northern Wei dynasty (386–535 CE), tomb dated 477 CE
Painted earthenware
Unearthed 2000, tomb of Song Shaozu (d. 477 CE), Caofulou Village, Datong, Shanxi Province
Shanxi Museum, Taiyuan

This Week at the Clark: A weekly guide to movies, music, and...

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 14:59:29 -0400

This Week at the Clark: A weekly guide to movies, music, and special events happening at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

Free Lecture: Seeing Madness: Insanity, Media, and Visual Culture - Tuesday October 2, 5:30 pm
What do movies, as well as pre-cinematic media and extended cinema, bring to the subject of madness, and what does madness bring to them? Beinecke Fellow W. J. T. Mitchell, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago, will discuss the visibility of madness and the madness of visuality, whether in graphic stereotypes, scientific classifications, theatrical spectacle, ritual performance, or cinema and new media.
Old Masters in New Frames Free Film Series: The Mill and the Cross – Thursday October 4, 7 pm
Lech Majewski’s The Mill & the Cross (2011, 95 min.) offers a unique opportunity, through special effects and dramatization, to enter the world of a Pieter Bruegel painting, with the artist himself (played by Rutger Hauer) as guide.
Free Solo Recital: Harpsichordist Victor Hill in Concert – Sunday October 7, 3 pm
Renowned harpsichordist Victor Hill will present a free solo recital featuring Johann Sebastian Bach’s English Suites in G minor, A major, and E minor. German composer J. S. Bach (1685–1750) was a master of the Baroque period renowned for the artistic beauty, technical skill, and intellectual depth of his ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments.

Subscribe to our e-news blasts to learn more about upcoming events at the Clark.

Flashback Friday: Giovanni Boldini in Impressionist Paris ran...

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:59:12 -0400

Flashback Friday: Giovanni Boldini in Impressionist Paris ran from February 14 to April 25, 2010. At its opening, it was the first exhibition focused on Boldini in the United States in two decades. Boldini’s artwork shimmers with Impressionist influence.

Image credit:
Giovanni Boldini
Crossing the Street, 1873–75
Oil on panel
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
1955.650

Who was Jane Avril, and why does she look so mysterious in this...

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 14:59:14 -0400

Who was Jane Avril, and why does she look so mysterious in this drawing by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec? Learn more about her by watching this video, then visit Clark Remix to see the sketch in person.

The Weekly ‘Mix: Every Wednesday, the Clark spotlights one of...

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:55:38 -0400

Who hasn’t visited a museum and wished they could own some of the works of art from the collection? This week’s uCurate gallery reflects that idea, and is aptly named What Would Look Good In My Living Room. While Jane Avril, the Canon Gilles Joye, and Harriet Campbell make strange companions, it’s still a striking combination of portraits!