For Immediate Release
March 22, 2023

CLARK ART INSTITUTE RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC PROGRAM PRESENTS LECTURE ON DISPLACEMENT AND THE OPAQUE

Williamstown, Massachusetts—On Friday, April 14 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program hosts a talk by Joshua I. Cohen (City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center), who examines African modernisms in the Francophone contexts of decolonization and the global Cold War. The lecture looks at the practices of three Mande artists from Francophone West Africa: the Guinean poet, musician, dramatist, and choreographer Fodéba Keita (1921-1969); the Malian studio photographer Seydou Keita (1921-2001); and the Senegalese painter Souleymane Keita (1947-2014). 

Joshua I. Cohen is an associate professor of art history at The City College of New York. He specializes in twentieth-century francophone West Africa, southern Africa, and connections to Europe and the United States. His areas of research include African and “global” modernisms, discourses of “primitivism,” racial identity, and “renaissance” in art, as well as national socialist cultural politics, West African ballet performance, postcolonial studies, and museum studies. His first book, The "Black Art" Renaissance: African Sculpture and Modernism across Continents, received honorable mention for the Modernist Studies Association First Book Prize. His writing has appeared in The Art Bulletin, African Arts, Journal of Black Studies, and publications from the Museum of Modern Art and the Centre Pompidou, among others. In 2020, he co-organized an international conference with Foad Torshizi and Vazira Zamindar, “Art History, Postcolonialism, and the Global Turn.” His current book project, tentatively titled Art of the Opaque: African Modernisms, Decolonization, and the Cold War, is a critical study of modernism between Africa and its diaspora in the context of decolonization and the global Cold War.

Presented in person in the Clark's auditorium. Free, with a reception in the Manton Research Center's Reading Room starting at 5 pm. No registration is required. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events. 

The next Research and Academic Program lecture is presented by Shundana Yusaf (University of Utah / The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation Fellow), who explores the dynamic exchange between listeners, sound, and space in the tomb of Lal Shabaz Marwandi, located in Sehwan, Pakistan. The event takes place on Tuesday, April 18 at 5:30 pm.

ABOUT THE CLARK
The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, 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, consisting of some 300,000 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, which has a three-star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Its 140-acre campus includes miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing an exceptional experience of art in nature. Galleries are open 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday, from September through June, and daily in July and August. Admission is free January through March and is $20 from March through December; admission is free year-round for Clark members, all visitors age 21 and under, and students with a valid student ID. Free admission is also available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and EBT Card to Culture. For information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.

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