2/3/18
In the opening lecture for Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection, Jay A. Clarke, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, addresses the liberation of drawing between the 1880s to the 1950s as the medium’s function shifted …
12/3/17
Art historian Nancy Mowll Mathews, Eugénie Prendergast Senior Curator, Emerita at the Williams College Museum of Art, explores how Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt worked with preliminary states (stages in the development of a print), which the esteemed print scholar William …
11/28/17
Join Professor Nicolas Howe and students from his Environmental Humanities course as they discuss how culture shapes the representation and experience of landscape. Tuesday, November 28 at 4:00pm Williams College Museum of Art
11/28/17
The Equal Justice Initiative creates the country’s first national memorial to the victims of lynching. Deborah Rothschild is consulting curator to the Equal Justice Initiative and former senior curator at the Williams College Museum of Art. She will discuss the …
11/17/17
Jonathan Crary, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University, presents “Untimely Turner.” Friday, November 17 5:30-6:30pm Manton Auditorium
11/14/17
Mellon Decade Fellow Andrew K. Scherer presents “Baak: The Qualities and Craft of Ancient Maya Bone.” This illustrated lecture explores the materiality of human and animal bone among the Pre-Columbian Maya (ca. 400 BCE to 1502 CE). The importance of …
11/5/17
In the opening lecture for the special exhibition The Impressionist Line: From Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Jay A. Clarke considers the hallmarks of “the impressionist line” by exploring works from the exhibition, including luminous …
11/5/17
In this special artist demonstration, New York-based choreographer and dancer Jody Sperling presents a performance of solo dances in tribute to Loïe Fuller (1862–1928), a visionary artist whose performances drew on the light-play of Impressionism to create a new dance …
10/31/17
Contemplate the weird, the eerie, and all the ways objects haunt us with Kevin Murphy, Eugénie Prendergast Senior Curator of American Art. Tuesday, October 31 at 4:00pm WCMA
10/31/17
Christopher Heuer presents “Arctic Ink.” When a mysterious cache of sixteenth-century Netherlandish engravings was found in the Arctic circle in 1870, many questions arose. What do such objects, for example, tell us about narratives of Renaissance globalization? About “cultural exchange” …
10/30/17
Spyros Papapetros, associate professor of history and theory of architecture at Princeton University, presents “Ornament and Evolution.” Enmeshed with the life histories of flourishing or atrophying social, political, and cultural organisms, turn-of-the-century discussions of the controversial topic of ornamentation invited …
10/21/17
Clifford Owens presents “Your Head is Attached to Your Body” as this year’s Annual Plonsker Family Lecture in Contemporary Art. Clifford Owens is an artist, writer, and curator. Influenced by performance art practices of the 1960s, he is known for live …
10/19/17
What’s the difference between theatre and performance art? When do objects “act” better than actors? Why is Kendall Jenner imitating Yoko Ono? Join us for a new collaboration between the Theatre Department and Williams College Museum of Art that aims …
10/17/17
Artists Barbara Takenaga and Tom Burckhardt discuss abstraction, painting, and geometry. Tuesday, October 17th 4pm WCMA
10/17/17
Clark/Oakley Humanities Fellow Agnes Lugo-Ortiz presents, “Slave Portraiture at the Thresholds of Emancipation (A Caribbean Meditation).” This talk will address the visualization of enslaved subjects in portraiture during the period of emancipation in the Caribbean. It will underscore the conflictive …
10/5/17
Celebrate our fall exhibitions: “Barbara Takenaga,” “Pink Art,” “The Presence of Absence,” and “Object Lab.” Hear from artist Barbara Takenaga and guest curator Debra Bricker Balken followed by mini tours in the galleries. Thursday October 5th 5pm Williams College Museum …
10/3/17
What happens when you see the museum’s collection through the lens of one color? And what happens when that color is PINK, a hue rich in history, symbolism and cultural relevance? Utilizing a series of algorithms written by Williams students, Pink …
9/26/17
Clark Fellow Victoria Rovine presents “Cloth and Colonialism: France, French West Africa, and the Construction of Cultures.” Cloth’s soft, pliable nature makes it an improbable vehicle for the assertion of power, yet it played a singular role in the history …
9/12/17
Beinecke Fellow Matthew Jesse Jackson presents “Everythingism.” It could be argued that the most compelling art is no longer defined by particular media (painting, sculpture, photography, video), or by particular subjects (portraiture, landscape, still life, devotional image), or by particular …
6/17/17
Few artists’ legacies have experienced the extreme highs and lows accorded to Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema over the last century. Since the 1980s, private collectors and museum curators have rediscovered Alma-Tadema’s many charms. Peter Trippi, co-curator of a large Alma-Tadema exhibition …
6/11/17
This talk by Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Sculpture Jay A. Clarke investigates how Picasso’s creative collaborations fueled and strengthened his art. We often think of Pablo Picasso as the ultimate artist genius, working alone in his studio, but he …
6/4/17
Co-curators Kathleen Morris and Alexis Goodin share stories behind the creation of the exhibition and show how this project brings back to life one of the great interiors of the Gilded Age. Sunday, June 4, 2017 3:00 pm-4:30 pm …
6/2/17
Twenty-second Annual Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art Symposium The M.A. Class of 2017 will deliver individual scholarly papers throughout the day. Starts 9am Manton Auditorium, Clark Art Institute, 225 South Street
5/12/17
As contemporary as it gets, senior studio art students design and produce an exhibition of their work in the final semester of their college careers. Friday, May 12 at 7:00pm Williams College Museum of Art
5/5/17
The Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute presents “Ecologies, Agents, Terrains,” a Clark Conference. What is the place of art and its histories in a time of ecological crisis? This conference will bring together art historians, artists, …
5/4/17
The Clark Conference “Ecologies, Agents, Terrains” begins its two-day conference with a presentation by Ghana ThinkTank. Ghana ThinkTank (GTT) is an artist collective known for its unconventional approach to negotiating social conflicts. Using a blend of public art and community …
5/2/17
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History Brynn Hatton presents “Global Vietnam: Transnational protest Art and Conceptualism’s Identity Crisis.” Tuesday, May 2 4:00pm Lawrence 3
5/2/17
Clark Fellow Ajay Sinha presents “An Indian Dancer in American Photographs.” This lecture tells a story of transcultural attractions in a set of more than a hundred photographs of the Indian dancer Ram Gopal, taken by the American photographer Carl …
4/27/17
In this conversation, Curator of Contemporary Art, Lisa Dorin and Artist Meleko Mokgosi discuss process and his exploration of history and allegory. Thursday, April 27 at 4:00pm Williams College Museum of Art
4/26/17
Art Department Faculty Colloquium Christopher Heuer, Acting Director, Research and Academic Program, Clark Art Institute presents “The Savage Episteme.” In 1566 two Inuit captured in Greenland, clad in sealskin and tattoos, were put on public display in the Netherlands. An …
4/25/17
Robert Sterling Clark Professor Mary Roberts presents “An Orientalist Gesamtkunstwerk? Frederic Leighton’s Arab Hall.” Throughout his career British artist Lord Frederic Leighton traveled extensively across the Near East amassing an exceptional collection of Islamic art. Distancing himself from prevailing conventions …
4/23/17
In this lecture, “Looking Anew at European Prints and Drawings,” curator Lara Yeager-Crasselt introduces the exhibition Looking North and South: European Prints and Drawings, 1500–1650. Highlighting Dutch, Flemish, German, and Italian prints and drawings from the Clark’s permanent collection, Yeager-Crasselt …
4/18/17
Clark Fellow Tamara Sears presents “Wilderness Urbanisms: Architecture, Landscape, and Travel in Southern Asia.” In the early 1340s, the sultan of Delhi tasked the famed Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta, with the job of accompanying a group of Mongol emissaries on …
4/18/17
Amy Podmore, Professor of Art, presents “Finding Elsa- Recent Sculpture and Video projects.” Wednesday, April 18th Wilde Gallery, Spencer Art Building – 4:15 & Faculty Studio, 54 Heating Plant Drive – 4:45
4/13/17
What does it mean to “curate the social”? Schultz’s talk will explore the role of social interaction and creative participation in contemporary museum practice. Currently an independent curator and public engagement consultant, she served as Director of Education and Curator …
4/13/17
Visiting Professor at Williams College Sarah Bassett presents “In Search of the ‘Dark Continent’: Defining Late Antique Art in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna.” Thursday, April 13, 2017 5:30 pm-6:30 pm Michael Conforti Pavilion
4/11/17
Lynette Wallworth is an Australian artist known for her immersive multimedia installations, which focus on the interactivity between humans and the natural world. Her most recent work is Collisions, a virtual reality investigation into the first contact between an indigenous Australian …
4/7/17
April 7-9, 2017 Convened by Kaira M. Cabañas (University of Florida) and Suzanne Hudson (University of Southern California) Participants: Lynne Cooke (National Gallery of Art), Ivone Margulies (Hunter College), Briley Rasmussen (Independent Scholar), Ana Maria Reyes (Boston University), Judith Rodenbeck …
4/6/17
Hear from students from the Robert Rauschenberg: Art Archives and Exhibitions course about their experience exploring the archives and developing the exhibition. Thursday, April 6 at 4:00pm Williams College Museum of Art
4/4/17
Mellon Decade Fellow Delinda Collier presents “Natural Media—Light, Water, and Wind—in Souleymane Cissé’s Finye (1982) and Yeelen (1987) .” Cissé’s un-commonsense proposition about “new” mediums is that they are both reducible to natural media and arbitrarily connected to language. This …
3/26/17
Professor of History of Art Julie Nelson Davis, University of Pennsylvania, presents a lecture on ukiyo-e (“images of the floating world”) prints, considering their subject matter, networks of production, and the historical context in which they were created. Sunday, March 26, …
3/16/17
Season Celebration at WCMA of spring exhibitions: Lex and Love, Robert Rauschenberg: Autobiography, and Accession Number. March 16, 2017 5 PM
3/15/17
Clark Fellow Ivan Gerát presents “Image, Narrative, and Mentality: Recent Perspectives in Approaching Medieval Pictorial Legends.” The role of narratives in creative artistic processes and their influence on the historical functions of images open many fascinating questions in art history …
3/13/17
Members of the Moroccan and Indonesian think tanks share their experiences with climate change and talk about the solutions they proposed to Ghana ThinkTank in response to our climate change problems. Reception to follow. B.Y.O.C (bring your own cup). March …
3/9/17
Endgame Afghanistan In conjunction with the Theater of War, the Gaudino Fund presents a photography exhibit by soldier-turned-photographer Ben Brody. Working primarily for the nonprofit GroundTruth Project, Brody “spent several years embedded in Afghanistan, producing this complex, haunting series, which lays …
3/9/17
Hybrid Practice Series: Caroline Woolard Artist Caroline Woolard’s performative talk should be very engaging (and even surprising!). In particular, she will highlight the role of infrastructure– or organizational systems–in the life cycle of artistic projects. This idea is a critical …
3/9/17
Amy Podmore, Professor of Art will present “Finding Elsa.” Faculty Lecture Series Thursday, March 9 at 4:15pm Thompson Chemistry, Wege Auditorium 47 Lab Campus Dr.
3/7/17
Kress Fellow in the Literature of Art Jeehee Hong presents “Framing Affect and Vision in Middle-Period China.” This paper addresses how emotional expressions were shaped in material form through various modes of visual and spatial experiences in middle-period China (ninth–fourteenth …
3/5/17
In the opening lecture for An Inner World: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, curator Lara Yeager-Crasselt explores the innovations in genre painting that emerged in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. Focusing on the significant developments in subject matter and technique pioneered by …
3/2/17
Accession Number February 16, 2017 – August 20, 2017 Between 1960 and 1962, 396 works of art came into the museum. As with all objects that enter the collection, ancient Egyptian amulets, Chinese Qing dynasty vases, and William Morris Hunt’s …
3/1/17
Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen, Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art, presents Art Department Faculty Colloquium “Beethoven’s Farewell”: The Creative Genius “in the Claws of the Secession.” This talk is drawn from a larger research project that examines a …
2/28/17
Clark/Oakley Fellow Marden Nichols presents “The Painted Stage: Drama in Pictures and Pictures in Drama at Rome.” Despite the undeniable importance of sound and song to dramatic performances, the ancient Romans referred to their audiences as spectatores, or viewers. This …
2/24/17
Site/Border: The Fragility of Narration Clark Colloquium February 24-25, 2017 Convened by Avinoam Shalem (Williams College/Columbia) and Christopher Heuer (RAP/Clark) Participants: Yto Barrada (Brooklyn-based artist), Holly Edwards (Williams College), Jérôme Game (Columbia University), Peter Geimer (Freie Universität), Emily Jacir (Palestine-based …
2/19/17
Kathleen Morris, curator of decorative arts, and Alexis Goodin, curatorial research associate, give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into planning the Henry Morris and Elizabeth H. Burrows Gallery of American decorative arts, an installation over six years in the making. Their conversation …
1/26/17
Ghana Think Tank Opening Celebration! Students from the Public Art and Climate Change winter study course take over WCMA’s rotunda with an immersive installation that responds to the climate change problems collected this past Fall. Bring your own cup to …
1/17/17
Kristen Oehlrich, assistant director of the Clark’s Research and Academic Program, presents a gallery talk focusing on the work of women photographers Julia Margaret Cameron, Anna Atkins, and Gertrude Käsebier, whose work is included in the exhibition Photography and Discovery. …
12/15/16
Take a closer look at a special object in the Clark’s collection with Looking and Lunching, an afternoon of focused investigation and friendly discussion with fellow art lovers. This month, join Jay Clarke, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, …
12/11/16
Exhibition curator Jay A. Clarke provides an introduction to Japanese Impressions: Color Woodblock Prints from the Rodbell Family Collection, followed by a conversation between Clarke and Adele Rodbell, the collector who made a gift of sixty-three Japanese prints to the …
12/8/16
VaNatta Ford (Assistant Professor, Africana Studies) and Brynn Hatton (Visiting Assistant Professor, Art History) host an informal conversation on Jean-Michel Basquiat and the dynamic cultural spheres that informed his multi-disciplinary practice circa 1983, the year he made “Defacement: The Death …
12/7/16
The Clark’s Research and Academic Program presents a free screening of State of Suspension (2008, 82 min), Mieke Bal’s experimental documentary of fragments in nine chapters; a provocative and critical look at Israel, sixty years after independence. The screening will …
12/6/16
“Medieval Matters: Curating the Middle Ages at the Metropolitan Museum of Art” lecture given by Griffith Mann, the Michel David-Weill Curator in Charge, Medieval Art and the Cloisters, at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Tuesday, December 6 at 7:00pm …
12/6/16
At the turn of the 1970s, a new infrastructure for art emerged on the basis of importing people rather than artworks. Originally a Northern European phenomenon, coinciding with the importation of American minimal and conceptual art, this model proved to …
12/2/16
Public lecture by artist Tomashi Jackson, sponsored by the Art Department. Jackson will speak about her new work, The Subliminal is Now, in which she utilizes painting, photography, video, and fibers in order to investigate and visualize the relationships between …
11/30/16
Professor of Art Ed Epping presents “CORRECTIONS: imaging mass incarceration in the USA” November 30 4:15pm Studio–Lower level end of Grundy Building behind Water Street Bookstore
11/29/16
Clark Fellow Robert Slifkin presents “The New Sense of Fate: Detrital Monumentalism in Postwar American Sculpture.” Tuesday, Nov. 29 5:30pm Conforti Pavilion
11/20/16
Robin Kelsey, dean of arts and humanities and Shirley Carter Burden Professor of Photography at Harvard University, presents “Finding Remains: The Process of Discovery in Early Photography,” the opening lecture for Photography and Discovery. Kelsey, a former Clark Professor at …
11/18/16
The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize winning art critic Sebastian Smee visits the Clark to discuss his acclaimed new work, The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art. Friday, Nov. 18 7-8:30pm Conforti Pavilion
11/17/16
Curator Kevin Murphy highlights several recent additions to the exhibition. Stair access only due to elevator maintenance. Thursday, Nov. 17 4pm WCMA
11/17/16
Take a closer look at a special object in the Clark’s collection with Looking and Lunching, an afternoon of focused investigation and friendly discussion with fellow art lovers. This month, join Lea Stephenson, MA candidate in the Williams Graduate Program …
11/15/16
Clark Fellow Ernst van Alphen presents “The Melodramatic Imagination in Painting: Gesture and Emotion in Christina’s World.” Tuesday, Nov. 15 5:30pm Conforti Pavilion
11/13/16
Olivier Meslay, Felda and Dena Hardymon Director, gives his first public talk since assuming his role earlier this year. Meslay, the fifth director of the Clark, discusses the Institute and his plans for its future. Sunday, November 13, 2016 1:00 pm-2:30 …
11/12/16
Annabelle Selldorf, the architect for the Manton Research Center’s redesign, talks about her practice and her work. A conversation follows with curators Kathleen Morris and Jay A. Clarke, librarian Susan Roeper, and Research and Academic Program Director Emeritus Michael Ann …
11/10/16
This program brings together three Basquiat scholars to discuss why this painting matters, what it meant in 1983, and what it means in 2016. Writer and Activist Chaédria LaBouvier ’07 moderates a panel with Pérez Art Museum Director Franklin Sirmans …
11/10/16
A gallery talk exploring works by Émile Bernard and Odilon Redon is led by Curatorial Assistant Genevieve Hulley with special guest collector Dr. Heinrich Medicus. Clark Permanent Collection Galleries Thursday, November 10, 12-1 pm
11/3/16
Walk through the exhibition with curator Elizabeth Gallerani. Hear about the objects’ origins, such as a connection to the Williams College Lyceum of Natural History, founded as a secret society in 1835. Thursday, Nov. 3 4pm WCMA
11/2/16
Laure de Margerie, Director, French Sculpture Census, presents “frenchsculpture.org, an online resource.” Wednesday, Nov. 2, 4:15pm Lawrence 3
11/1/16
Join six senior scholars and artists for the Clark conversation, “Art After Democracy.” This informal gathering centers loosely on post-1989 art to consider the place of critical politics, theory, and the “post-socialist” condition. Scheduled near the eve of the United …
10/31/16
This lecture revisits the relationship between Victorian critic John Ruskin and his disciple and translator Marcel Proust in order to rethink key aspects of Ruskin’s investments in the past, present, and durational intensity of works of art, as well as …
10/27/16
Curator Anna Kelley ’MA 17 and sculptor Matthew Ronay discuss how themes of violence, debauchery, abstraction, and narrative play out in the exhibition. Thursday, Oct 27 4 pm WCMA
10/26/16
Visiting Assistant Professor Catherine Girard’s talk is entitled “Ref(l)ection: Hunters, Paintings, and Mirrors in Eighteenth-Century French Interiors.” Wednesday October 26th 4:15pm Lawrence 3
10/25/16
Mellon Decade Fellow Stephanie Porras presents “Maerten de Vos and the Renaissance In-between.” Maerten de Vos was a sixteenth-century Flemish artist who worked in Italy, a double convert (to Lutheranism before returning to Catholicism), and an export artist whose work …
10/22/16
Sharon Hayes’s work in performance, video, and installation draws from historical examples of activism and protest to interrogate the present political climate. She tackles issues such as gay rights, gender construction, and militarism, often performing archival documentation in new or …
10/21/16
Jennifer Homans, founder and director of The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU and author of Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet joins dancers from the New York City Ballet for a special conversation about ballet. This program …
10/18/16
Robert Sterling Clark Professor Avinoam Shalem presents “When Nature Becomes Ideology: Disclosing the Ruined Landscapes of Palestine (after 1947).” When Nature Becomes Ideology focuses on the topography of Palestine’s rural landscape after 1947. The modern era and especially the age …
10/13/16
Curator Lisa Dorin discusses David Zink Yi and Angie Keefer’s collaborative process and the development of the textual component of the installation. Thursday, Oct 13 4 pm WCMA
10/13/16
In her recent research, Catriona MacLeod (University of Pennsylvania) examines the question of why sculpture is both intensively discussed and yet rendered immaterial in German literature. She focuses on three forms of disappearance: sculpture’s vanishing as a legitimate art form …
10/13/16
This talk comes from Smith’s book in progress, Photographic Returns, which examines contemporary photographers who look back to moments in U.S. history that also became important in the history of photography. Shawn Smith is both a leading photography scholar and …
10/9/16
Between 1636 and 1638 Rubens designed over sixty paintings of mythological subjects for the Torre de la Parada, the Royal Hunting Lodge outside of Madrid. In this lecture Margaret D. Carroll, Professor of Art at Wellesley College, argues that Rubens …
10/6/16
The exhibition launches with the performance by Zink Yi based on a text developed collaboratively with artist and writer Angie Keefer. Along with four musicians, Zink Yi activates wooden sound objects in the installation. Thursday, October 6 5:00 pm WCMA
10/5/16
Professor of Art E.J. Johnson will discuss “Jousts on the Floor and Gods on the Stage and Ceiling: The Teatro Farnese at Parma.” Wednesday, October 5th 4:15 pm Lawrence 3
10/4/16
The paintings in Splendor, Myth and Vision belong to the era of Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Francisco de Quevedo, to name a few of the influential dramatists and writers of 17th-century Spain. What are some of the shared …
10/4/16
Clark Fellow Martha Buskirk presents “The Convenient Fiction of Authorship (On the Interwined Fortunes of Art and Copyright).” Arguing that it is impossible to understand modern and contemporary art without taking into account articulations of intangible value that are the …
10/4/16
We’ll open up the gallery for a half hour and invite you behind the scenes to see David Zink Yi and his fellow musicians prepare for the opening performance. Tuesday, Oct 4, 1:10 – 1:40 pm Wednesday, Oct 5, 11:00 …
10/3/16
Elena Shtromberg is Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Utah. Drawn from her book, Art Systems: Brazil and the 1970s (University of Texas, 2016), this presentation will focus on a series of …
10/1/16
This symposium will explore the question of place in art, literature, philosophy, cultural geography, and environmentalism. Participants will engage in a cross-disciplinary dialogue that will explore the importance of place for personal and social identity, and consider the local, national, …
9/30/16
Dr. Martinez-Conde will use paintings from the exhibition Splendor, Myth, and Vision: Nudes from the Prado to talk about behavioral insights developed by Old Masters and how they used or challenged perceptual cues in their work. The program is hosted …
9/29/16
Think tanks in Indonesia and Morocco await your response. Curator Sonnet Coggins and Terence Washington MA ’17 will fire up the mobile unit to collect your climate change problems and update you on the unfolding project. Thursday, Sept 29, 2016 …
9/28/16
Professor of Art Mike Glier will present “The Forests of Antarctica: New Drawings and Paintings.” Wednesday, September 28th at 4:15 Faculty Studios, 32B, 26 Water Street.
9/25/16
Scholars of Northern European art Larry Silver and Aneta Georgievska-Shine present two complementary lectures on the mythological paintings of Peter Paul Rubens.
9/23/16
“Whose Nudes? Painting, Collecting, Displaying the Body in Early Modern Europe” is a scholarly symposium held in conjunction with the Clark’s exhibition, Splendor, Myth and Vision: Nudes from the Prado. This event brings together a group of international scholars, specializing in …