2/3
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
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 …
11/17
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
11/5
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 …
11/5
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 …
10/30
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 …
11/14
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 …
10/31
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” …
10/17
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 …
9/26
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
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
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 …
This exhibition was curated by Margo Cohen Ristorucci MA ’17. Borrowing its title from the final lines of This Is How You Lose Her — Junot Díaz’s collection of short stories chronicling the fallout of infidelity — The Half-Life of Love …
6/11
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 …
5/5
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
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 …
4/7
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 …
6/4
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
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
4/13
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
2/24
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 …
4/23
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 …
3/26
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, …
3/5
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 …
2/19
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 …
1/17
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. …
5/2
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 …
4/25
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 …
4/18
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 …
4/4
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 …
3/15
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 …
3/7
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 …
2/28
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 …
12/7
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 …
12/11
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 …
11/20
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 …
11/13
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
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
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
12/6
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 …
12/15
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, …
10/31
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 …
11/29
Clark Fellow Robert Slifkin presents “The New Sense of Fate: Detrital Monumentalism in Postwar American Sculpture.” Tuesday, Nov. 29 5:30pm Conforti Pavilion
11/18
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
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
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
11/1
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 …
10/25
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 …
10/18
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 …
10/4
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
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 …
9/30
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 …
9/23
“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 …
10/1
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, …
9/21
In this talk by Guy Hedreen, professor of art at Williams College, we explore aspects of nature, gender, and sexuality in several pictures of these demigods in the exhibition from the Prado. September 21st 12:30-1:00pm The Clark’s Special Exhibition Galleries
10/9
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 …
9/25
Scholars of Northern European art Larry Silver and Aneta Georgievska-Shine present two complementary lectures on the mythological paintings of Peter Paul Rubens.
7/10
Join curators Mark C. Taylor, Professor of Religion at Columbia University, and Henry W. Art, Robert F. Rosenburg Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Williams College, for the opening lecture of Sensing Place: Reflecting on Stone Hill. Sunday, July 10, 2016, 3:00 pm-4:30 …
6/19
University of Edinburgh art historian and Renaissance specialist Jill Burke explores the emergence and evolution of the nude in the Renaissance. SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2016 3:00 pm-4:30 pm MICHAEL CONFORTI PAVILION
6/12
One of Spain’s greatest flamenco dancers, Belén Maya, presents a lecture and demonstration of the art of flamenco with guitarist José Luis Rodríguez and cantaor (singer) Alfonso Cid. MEMBER22.00 per GENERAL ADMISSION25.00 per STUDENT5.00 per SUNDAY JUNE 12, 2016 …
6/11
Miguel Falomir, deputy director of the Museo Nacional del Prado, Tom Loughman, director and CEO of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (formerly associate director at the Clark), and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, Clark interim curator of paintings and sculpture, reveal the …
5/22
Porcelain expert Meredith Chilton discusses the whimsical and exuberant porcelain produced in Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier’s eighteenth-century Viennese porcelain factory, highlighting examples from the Melinda and Paul Sullivan Collection that are currently on loan to the Clark. Sunday, May 22, …
6/3
The M.A. Class of 2016 will deliver individual scholarly papers throughout the day. Friday, June 3, 2016 9:00-5:30 Conforti Pavilion, Clark Art Institute, 225 South Street
6/1
Francis Oakley, interim director of the Clark and a noted historian, presents “In the Footsteps of Fra Angelico: Savonarola and the Florentine Millennial Dream.” Oakley addresses the dramatic rise and tragic fall of Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98) as a religious reformer …
The Space Between, curated by Nina Wexelblatt MA ’16, disperses installations by seven artists in interstitial spaces on the MASS MoCA campus to explore ways we can actively inhabit the state of “just passing through” the nooks and crannies that typically separate exhibitions.
5/10
Julia Silverman, Judith M. Lenett Memorial Fellow, Williams College M.A. Class of 2016, presents the results of her year-long conservation work in the 22nd Annual Lenett Lecture. Her project at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center (WACC) involves the research and …
4/30
Convened by Mary Roberts and Marc Gotlieb, Objects of Orientalism is designed to open a new dialogue around orientalist visual practice in the second half of the nineteenth century, and to continue the methodological conversation around contemporary valences of the …
4/29
Convened by Mary Roberts and Marc Gotlieb, Objects of Orientalism is designed to open a new dialogue around orientalist visual practice in the second half of the nineteenth century, and to continue the methodological conversation around contemporary valences of the …
4/26
Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Jay A. Clarke discusses three paintings by Eugène Delacroix, Maurice Denis, and Thomas Gainsborough, all currently on loan to the Clark. Tuesday, April 26, 2016 3:00 PM-4:00 PM Permanent Collection Galleries, 225 South Street
4/19
Clark Fellow Stephen Campbell presents “Against Titian.” Tuesday, April 19, 5:30-6:30pm Hunter Studio, Lunder Center at Stone Hill, 225 South Street
3/1
Clark Fellow Juliet Koss presents “Model Soviet Time Machines.” Tuesday, March 1, 2016 5:30 PM-6:30 PM Hunter Studio, Lunder Center at Stone Hill, 225 South Street
3/15
Drawn from Warnock’s current work-in-progress, this talk proposes a new reading of Hantaï’s oeuvre from the lens of these largely unfamiliar and rarely exhibited investigations. Tuesday, March 15, 5:30-6:30 Hunter Studio, Lunder Center at Stone Hill 225 South St Williamstown, …
4/5
Clark Fellow Julie Ault presents “Undoing the Past: Recuperated Document and Uncertain History.” Tuesday, April 5, 2016 5:30 pm-6:30 pm Hunter Studio, Lunder Center at Stone hill, 225 South Street
2/23
Clark/Oakley Fellow Kavita Singh presents “Museums, Heritage, Culture: Into the Conflict Zone.” Tuesday, February 23, 2016 5:30 PM-6:30 PM Hunter Studio, Lunder Center at Stone Hill, 225 South Street
2/27
Noted private collector Jon Landau, art dealer Andrew Butterfield, and former Clark Senior Curator Richard Rand discuss the collection of Renaissance and nineteenth-century painting and sculpture Landau has assembled over many years. Saturday, February 27, 2016 3-4:00 pm Conforti Pavilion
11/21
Christian Thorne moderates a panel discussion to mark the publication of The Challenge of Surrealism: The Correspondence of Theodor W. Adorno and Elisabeth Lenk, edited and translated by Susan H. Gillespie. Saturday, November 21 3-4pm Conforti Pavilion, The Clark Center
11/11
Join Curatorial Assistant Genevieve Hulley for a discussion of early photography in the exhibition An Eye for Excellence: Twenty Years of Collecting. Wednesday, November 11 12:30-1pm The Clark’s Special Exhibition Galleries, 225 South Street
12/2
Join Graduate Curatorial Intern Dani Ezor for a discussion of Japanese woodblock prints on display in An Eye for Excellence: Twenty Years of Collecting, recently given to the Clark by the Rodbell Family Collection. December 2 12:30-1:00pm The Clark’s Special …
12/1
Clark Fellow Joanna Smith presents “Buried, Layered, Lasting, and Lost: Bronze Age Perspectives on the History of Art. Tuesday, December 1 5:30pm Hunter Studio, Lunder Center at Stone Hill, 225 South Street
12/8
Clark Fellow Spyros Papapetros presents “The Prearchitectonic Condition: Architecture Before Architecture.” Tuesday, December 8 5:30pm Hunter Studio, Lunder Center at Stone Hill 225 South St
11/10
Clark Fellow Maureen Shanahan presents a lecture: “The Orientalist and the Asylum: Gaëtan Gatain de Clérambault’s Veiled Photography.” Tuesday, November 10 5:30pm Hunter Studio, Lunder Center at Stone Hill, 225 South Street
10/25
Collecting for the Clark: Twenty Years of Acquisitions tells the stories of collectors who have donated objects to the museum and how these new objects enhance the existing collection. Lecture: Sunday September 25th 11:00am Clark Center, West Pavilion In the …
9/24
The Clark’s Research and Academic Program presents a conversation with Cultural theorist and critic Mieke Bal. Her film, “Madame B,” airs at the Clark on Wednesday, September 23 at 5:30 pm. Thursday, September 24th, 5:30pm, Hunter Studio, Lunder Center at …
9/18
Taking as its premise the fundamental incongruence between the epistemologies on which art and law depend, this colloquium explores the possibilities generated when thinking of the two in parallel, conflict, and convergence. By Invitation Only. Friday and Saturday, September 18th …
9/15
Students meet at the Lunder Center at Stone Hill at 4 pm, then move to WCMA to view Kevin’s show of Whistler prints. Plan to bike or car-pool from Lunder Center to WCMA for the second part of the workshop, …
10/27
Robert Sterling Clark Visiting Professor Mary Roberts presents a lecture, “Transcultural Objects: Islamic Art and Artist-collector Networks, 1860–1890.” It will take place at 5:30pm Tuesday, October 27th in the Hunter Studio of the Lunder Center, Clark Art Institute, 225 South Street.
Laura Coyle lecture Sunday, August 23, 2015 4-5:30pm West Pavilion
7/19
Leo Jansen lecture Sunday, July 19, 2015 4-5:30pm West Pavilion
7/5
Jay Clarke Sunday, July 5, 2015 3-4pm Lunder Center at Stone Hill Galleries
6/14
Richard Kendall, Chris Stolwijk, and Sjraar van Heugten Sunday June 14, 2015 11am-12:30pm and 3:00-4:30pm Clark West Pavilion
5/9
Lecture by Robert Mark Antliff Saturday May 9, 2015 3-4pm Clark West Pavilion
4/26
Belinda Rathbone lecture Sunday, April 26, 2015 3-4pm Clark West Pavilion
4/9
Farieda Nazier lecture Thursday April 9, 2015 5:00-6:30 Clark West Pavilion
3/10
Jacqueline Lichtenstein joins Iris Moon, Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow, Metropolitan Museum of Art, in a wide-ranging conversation about her life and scholarship. Tuesday March 10, 2015 5:30-6:30 Clark West Pavilion
5/5
Michael Ann Holly Tuesday, May 5, 2015, 5:30pm Clark Center West Pavilion
4/24
Gallery Talk Friday, April 24, 2015, 3:00-4:00pm Clark Center West Pavilion
4/21
Kathrin Müller Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 5:30pm Clark Center West Pavilion
4/7
Sheila Crane Tuesday, April 7, 2015, 5:30pm Clark Center West Pavilion
3/17
Michele Cometa Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 5:30pm Clark Center West Pavilion
3/3
Carrie Noland Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 5:30 pm Clark Center West Pavilion