New! Summer Saturday hours
10 am to 3 pm through August 29
The Clark houses one of the most distinguished art research libraries in the country, with over 300,000 volumes in more than 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
In his introduction David Brower writes: “The faces here represent California tribes that white men exterminated – tribes whose elements were slowly gathered together, each one discrete, each one alive on a living land, and each one now gone. Empathy may not rise high when a piece of wild land perishes, but when a whole tribe vanishes, when fifty tribes disappear forever, we may well think that there but for grace of God go we. Perhaps these faces can be symbols for us, can make more poignant the tragedy we are inflicting on living things… Man has been forgiven often for knowing not what he does, [but] for the kind of error that wiped out this kind of uniqueness there cannot be much more forgiveness.”
Photographs of “the faces of some one hundred Indians of California” were selected from the collections of the R.H. Lowry Museum and the C. Hart Merriam Collection (Berkeley) and the American Museum of Natural History (New York), as well as the collection of Mr. F.F. Latta, “the foremost student of the Yokuts Indians.” Text by archeologist Robert Heizer and anthropologist Theodora Kroeber includes cultural outlines and insightful observations.
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
Rose B. Simpson is an artist, a mother, and the daughter of a matrilineal line of ceramicists and potters spanning nearly 70 generations. Journeys of Clay presents a comprehensive survey of the last decade of Rose B. Simpson's artistic career. The exhibition positions Simpson's work in the greater context of family and womanhood, exploring the relationships between the artist and her maternal relatives and their influences on her work. A member of the Santa Clara Pueblo (Tewa: Kha-'Po Owingeh) in New Mexico, Simpson combines her ancestral and contemporary knowledge to create mixed media sculptures using clay, organic found items, and mechanical hardware. Featured alongside Simpson's work are sculptures by her mother, Roxanne Swentzell, a prolific artist whose expressive figures inspired Simpson; her grandmother, Rina Swentzell, who was a well-known academic, activist, and architect; and her great-grandmother, the artist Rose Naranjo, who was the center of gravity that connected Simpson's many talented and successful relatives.
LIBRARY HOURS
PUBLIC HOURS
The library is open without appointment.
Summer hours are:
Monday - Friday, 9 am to 5 pm
Saturday, 10 am to 3 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.