For Immediate Release
November 14, 2023

CLARK ART INSTITUTE RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC PROGRAM PRESENTS LECTURE ON 
REROUTING INDIAN MODERNISM

Williamstown, Massachusetts—On Tuesday, December 5 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program presents a lecture by Rakhee Balaram (State University of New York at Albany / Clark Fellow). In it she questions the historiography concerning Rabindranath Tagore’s art to open up new questions about the historical avant-garde and its limits. This lecture looks to South America and Japan to consider the genesis of Tagore’s drawings and paintings, which were exhibited in Paris in the wake of the celebrated African and Oceanic exhibition in Paris in 1930. Balaram draws on scientific, economic and legal discourses, and both cross-cultural analysis and popular culture to examine Tagore’s erasures, drawings, and paintings, which offer revolutionary perspectives on current debates in the field. 

Balaram is associate professor of global art and art history at State University of New York at Albany, where she specializes in modern and contemporary art. Balaram has published two books: Counterpractice: Psychoanalysis, Politics and the Art of French Feminism (Manchester University Press, 2022) and a co-edited volume on modern and contemporary South Asian art, 20th-Century Indian Art (Thames & Hudson, 2022), which was named a Financial Times Book of the Year. In spring 2024, Balaram will be a Scholar-in-Residence at INHA (Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art) in Paris. At the Clark, she will work on a book on two canonical Indian artists, Amrita Sher-Gil and Rabindranath Tagore.

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A reception at 5 pm in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events. 

The next Research and Academic Program lecture is presented by Sora Han (University of California, Irvine / Clark Fellow), who examines how Charles Gaines’s Manifestos 4 (2020) and Sky Box II (2020) break the words of the infamous 1857 Supreme Court opinion Dred Scott v. Sanford. The event takes place on Tuesday, February 27 at 5:30 pm in the Clark’s auditorium.

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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