ABOUT THE LIBRARY
The Clark houses one of the most distinguished art research libraries in the country, with more than 285,000 volumes in over 65 languages. Focusing on post-medieval European and American art, the collection is outstanding in the fields of Italian and Northern Renaissance, Baroque, and nineteenth-century French art, the history of photography, and international contemporary art, as well as theory and visual culture
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
Rare Book Collection
AFF: American fabrics and Fashions, No. 133 (1985). [New York] : [Doric Pub. Co.], [©1975]-
American Fabrics and Fashion was a commercial textile magazine created as a guide for manufacturers in the fabrics industry. In every issue there are actual fabric samples glued in, allowing the reader to see what a given fabric looked and felt like. Accompanying the samples are textile advertisements; sometimes the samples are incorporated into the ads. Issues of AFF were purchased to augment the Mary Ann Beinecke Collection of Decorative Arts.
This issue of American Fabrics and Fashions features sportswear. An article by Richard Martin talks about the all-American tradition of sportswear, ads for 1980s sportswear include fabric swatches, and an article on “Hot Ideas in Fashion Wear” is illustrated with designer drawings by FIT students, created for a show sponsored by 3M, for coats and jackets made with the then new material called Thinsulate. The whole issue takes a fascinating look at “then and now,” with historical images of sportswear such as that worn by the tennis player on the cover (imagine playing tennis in a tie and cufflinks!)
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 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
Iconographies of Occupation: Visual Cultures in Wang Jingwei's China, 1939-1945. Jeremy E. Taylor. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, [2021].
Iconographies of Occupation is the first book to address how the “collaborationist” Reorganized National Government (RNG) in Japanese-occupied China sought to visualize leader Wang Jingwei (1883–1944), the Chinese people, and China itself. It explores the ways in which this administration sought to present itself to the people over which it ruled at different points between 1939 and August 1945.
Drawing on rarely before used archival records relating to propaganda and a range of visual media produced in occupied China by the RNG, the book examines the means used by this “client regime” to carve out a separate visual space for itself by reviving prewar Chinese methods of iconography and by adopting techniques, symbols, and visual tropes from the occupying Japanese and their allies. Iconographies of Occupation presents a thoroughly original visual history approach to the study of a much-maligned regime and opens up new ways of understanding its place in wartime China. It also brings China under the RNG into dialogue with broader theoretical debates about the significance of “the visual” in the cultural politics of foreign occupation.
LIBRARY HOURS
PUBLIC HOURS
The Clark library is currently closed to the public, but we are able to provide reference and research services.
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HOLIDAYS
The Library is closed on the following holidays:
New Year's Day
Presidents' Day
Memorial Day
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Labor Day
Indigenous Peoples Day
Thanksgiving (2 days)
Christmas (2 days)
EXTENDED HOURS
Extended hours are available to holders of Clark badges.
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.