FREE LECTURE AT THE CLARK CELEBRATES OPENING OF WINSLOW HOMER EXHIBITION

For Immediate Release

May 29, 2013

Williamstown, MA—Marking opening day of the exhibition Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, exhibition curator Marc Simpson presents a free lecture on Sunday, June 9 at 3 pm. The Homer exhibition and the exhibition George Inness: Gifts from Frank and Katherine Martucci are open to the public at 10 am. The lecture is free with paid admission.

In his lecture, “Winslow Homer, Sterling Clark, and His Institute,” Simpson examines Robert Sterling Clark’s extensive Homer collection, surveying the works and examining the career of the renowned painter, watercolorist, and printmaker.
Clark admired Winslow Homer (1836-1910) more than any other American artist. In 1942, he asserted with confidence: “I put Winslow Homer as the greatest artist of ours.” Acting on this belief for forty years, from 1915 through 1955, he purchased Homer’s oil paintings, watercolors, and other works in such numbers that, in the end, he owned more works by Homer than by any other artist.

More important than the size of the collection, however, is its quality. In its breadth and ambition, Clark’s collection is the finest gathering of Homer’s works put together by any person after the artist’s death. The extraordinary nature of the collection became clear to the outside world only when Clark opened his museum in Williamstown in May 1955. In the intervening half-century-plus, the museum has built on this strength, augmenting the original Homer collection through both purchase and gift, and has placed the Homer collection at the core of its exhibition practice and educational mission.

Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History showcases some sixty oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings, as well as approximately 120 rarely seen wood engravings. George Inness: Gifts from Frank and Katherine Martucci celebrates the most significant contribution of American painting to the Clark since the museum’s founding. Eight paintings by American landscape painter George Inness are presented with two additional works by Inness which were purchased by Sterling Clark and have been a part of the museum’s collection since 1955. The canvases represent an excellent survey of the artist’s late work when Inness moved from the open-air painting and naturalism of his early career toward a more conceptual approach to capturing mood and the play of light and shadow.

About the Clark

Set amidst 140 acres in the Berkshires, the Clark is one of the few major art museums that also serves as a leading international center for research and scholarship. The Clark presents public and education programs and organizes groundbreaking exhibitions that advance new scholarship. The Clark’s research and academic programs include an international fellowship program and conferences. Together with Williams College, the Clark sponsors one of the nation’s leading master’s programs in art history. The Clark receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The galleries are open daily in July and August (open Tuesday through Sunday from September through June), 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $15 June 1 through October 31; free November through May; and free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. For more information, visitclarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303. The Clark’s library will be closed for renovation June 1 through September 3, 2013.
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