The Clark houses one of the most distinguished art research libraries in the country, with more than 296,000 volumes in over 130 languages. From its opening in 1962 the library has grown and changed over the years to accommodate teaching spaces, visual resources, new programs and initiatives, and a never-ending array of new technologies (in addition, of course, to its growing collection of books), always striving to meet the needs of our valued students, scholars, staff, researchers, and visitors.
The library’s special collections enhance both library and museum holdings. Highlights include the founding collection of Robert Sterling Clark's rare books, the history of photomechanical reproduction, early illustrated printed books, decorative arts and sample books, twentieth- and twenty-first century artists’ books, and archival collections.
special collections book of the month
Allan Sekula Library
The Photographer's Eye. John Szarkowski. New York : Museum of Modern Art, 2009.
Over several decades, artist/writer/ teacher/photographer Allan Sekula amassed a library of 15,000 volumes to support his wide-ranging interests, which included – among many other things - contemporary art and photography, caricature and cartoons, social justice, economic disparities, consumerism, the history of the workers’ movement, political movements, and the destruction of natural and built environments. Many of his books, including The Photographer's Eye, highlighted here, reflected his practice as a photographer and filmmaker, and as a writer and teacher of photography and film.
Most of Sekula's library, shelved in the order in which the books were shelved in his home and studio, can be viewed as a visible archive in the Manton Reading Room. A smaller part of it, those volumes identified as rare or valuable, is kept in Special Collections. Even this small selection of books from Special Collections gives a taste of the range and eclecticism of Sekula’s interests.
FOLLOW THE LIBRARY
Serving the general public as well as visiting scholars and local students and faculty, the Clark library welcomes all visitors to use its reference and research services and to enjoy its collections. An extensive array of electronic resources and reference materials support scholarly research in the field of Art History. Library staff are dedicated to assisting all users to access the library’s wide-ranging and diverse collections.
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New Acquisitions Book of the Week
Sheroanawë Hakihiiwë is a Yanomami visual artist whose minimal, delicate drawings with colored patterns and symbols reflect Yanomami imagery and cosmogony and the relationship that his community has with the landscape. “My work in these papers is close to all the universe I know with the uriji (forest), that I see when I walk through it accompanied by people from my community and family. The different ink sources that we use to make the pigment. I also know the animals and plants, their traces and how they move in the forest. The shapori (shaman) talks to me and tells me about things, animals talk through shamans, the spirits help us.”
The symbolic universe of Hakihiiwë is directly related to the meaning of his production. Curator André Mesquita says that Hakihiiwë “works in a constant way of creating paintings, monotypes and unique drawings, series on the same theme and a repetition of visual motifs. The artist also has a special care with preservation: his work is a memory act redefining relationships, readings, stories and visions on the perceptions and ideas of representation, archive, record, observation, dream, technology, nature, daily life and history. In order to never lose or make all this knowledge invisible, he tries to preserve them, in defense and persistence of a collective memory, reconstructed and materialized in his work.”
LIBRARY HOURS
PUBLIC HOURS
The library is open without appointment. Hours are:
Monday - Friday, 9 am to 5 pm
All are welcome to email the library with reference/research questions.
HOLIDAYS
The library is closed to the public on the following holidays:
New Year's Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Presidents' Day
Memorial Day
Juneteenth
Independence Day
Labor Day
Indigenous Peoples Day
Thanksgiving (2 days)
Christmas (2 days)
EXTENDED HOURS
Extended hours are available to holders of a Clark badge or a Reader's Card. Reader's cards are given by application. Cards may not be appropriate for all applicants but we will always do our best to meet your research needs.
Mon-Thurs 8 am to 11 pm
Friday 8 am to 6 pm
Saturday 9 am to 6 pm
Sunday 9 am to 11 pm
HOLIDAYS
With the exception of Christmas Day and New Year's Day the library is open during holidays to anyone eligible for extended hours.