THE CLARK’S RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC PROGRAM ANNOUNCES FALL LECTURES, SYMPOSIUM, CONFERENCE

For Immediate Release

September 3, 2014

Williamstown, MA—The Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program presents a series of free lectures, as well as a symposium and a conference, over the next two months. All lectures are held in the Hunter Studio at the Lunder Center at Stone Hill; the symposium and conference are held in the auditorium of the Manton Research Center.

Tuesday, September 23, 5:30 pm
Lecture: “Sage and Magician as Poetic Figures in Pop Art: Richard Hamilton and Claes Oldenburg”
Thomas Crow, an art historian best known for influential writings on the role of art in modern society and culture, lectures. Crow’s area of specialty ranges from eighteenth-century French art to modern and contemporary American art.

Friday, September 26, 5:30 pm
Keynote Lecture
Geraldine Johnson, University of Oxford, delivers the keynote lecture for the Clark/Getty symposium “Sculpture and Photography: The Art Object in Reproduction.” Johnson has held a number of prestigious grants and fellowships, including ones awarded by the Harvard Society of Fellows, the Leverhulme Trust, Villa i Tatti in Florence, the Henry Moore Foundation, the Fulbright Commission, and the Mellon Foundation.

Saturday, September 27, 9:30 am‒5:30 pm
Symposium: “Sculpture and Photography: The Art Object in Reproduction”
This Clark Symposium explores the intersections between sculpture and photography to assess the current roles of photographic reproduction in art historical writing and the impacts of new media on art practices. Participants include: Suzanne Blier, Harvard University; Peter Geimer, Freie Universität Berlin; Geraldine Johnson, University of Oxford; Anne McCauley, Princeton University; Stephen Melville, Ohio State University (Emeritus); Alina Payne, Harvard University; and David Rodowick, University of Chicago.

Tuesday, October 7, 5:30 pm
Lecture: “Between Mimicry and Mimesis”
Parul Dave-Mukherji, professor in the School of Arts and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, examines Anukrtivada, or theory of performative mimesis, found in a tenth-century Sanskrit commentary. Dave-Mukherji’s research interests include global art history, contemporary Asian art, and comparative aesthetics.

Tuesday, October 21, 5:30 pm
Lecture: “The Treachery of Images: Photographs of Works of Art”
Ralph Lieberman, art historian and photographer of architecture and sculpture, discusses the relationship between photography and art history. Lieberman was awarded a Fulbright and grants from the Kress Foundation and the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at the Villa i Tatti in Florence.

Friday, November 7, 10 am‒5 pm
Saturday, November 8, 10 am‒5 pm
Conference: “Art History and Emergency”
This two-day Clark Conference assesses art history’s specific roles and responsibilities with regard to the condition widely described as the “humanities crisis.” Participants include: Caroline Arscott, The Courtauld Institute of Art; Manuel Borja-Villel, The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; Benjamin Buchloh, Harvard University; Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, independent curator; Thomas Crow, New York University; Patrick Flores, University of the Philippines-Diliman; Marjorie Garber, Harvard University; Kajri Jain, University of Toronto; Anatoli Mikhailov, Rector and Founder, European Humanities University; Mary Miller, Yale University; Molly Nesbit, Vassar College; Our Literal Speed; Michael Rakowitz, Artist, Northwestern University; and Howard Singerman, Hunter College, City University of New York.

Tuesday, November 11, 5:30 pm
Lecture: “The Avant-Garde's Impossible Archive”
Craig Dworkin, professor at the University of Utah and senior founding editor of Eclipse, lectures. Dworkin is the author of Reading the Illegible and No Medium and is the editor of five collections, including Language to Cover a Page: The Early Writings of Vito Acconci.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 5:30 pm
“Trading the Gaze: The Materiality of Swahili Coast Portrait Photography, 1870–1930s”
Prita Meier, assistant professor of art history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, lectures. Meier’s research focuses on the African engagement with modernity and the visual culture of colonial and postcolonial East Africa.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC PROGRAM

The Clark’s 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. Darby English was appointed STARR director of the program in April 2013.

ABOUT THE CLARK

The Clark Art Institute is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, open to the public with more than 240,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.

The Clark opened its expanded facilities on July 4, 2014, unveiling new and enhanced spaces that accommodate the continued growth of the Institute’s programs. Included in this final stage of the project are the new 42,600-square-foot Clark Center designed by Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, expansion and renovation of the original Museum Building and the ongoing renovation of the Manton Research Center by Selldorf Architects, and a sweeping redesign of the grounds by Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture. The first phase of the campus expansion project was completed in 2008 with the opening of the Lunder Center at Stone Hill, a striking conservation and exhibitions facility also designed by Tadao Ando.

The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Opening season hours: Galleries open daily from July 4 through October 13, 2014, 10 am to 5 pm (Tuesdays until 6 pm and Fridays until 7 pm in July and August). From October 14, 2014 through June 30, 2015: Galleries open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $20 through October 31, 2014 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.

Press contact:
Amanda Powers
The Clark
[email protected]
413 458 0471