FREE LECTURE AT CLARK ART INSTITUTE EXPLORES EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY VIENNESE PORCELAIN

For Immediate Release
May 9, 2016

Williamstown, Massachusetts—Porcelain expert Meredith Chilton presents the free lecture “Stolen Secrets: Vienna Baroque Porcelain of Du Paquier” at the Clark Art Institute on Sunday, May 22 at 3 pm in the Michael Conforti Pavilion. Chilton discusses the whimsical and exuberant porcelain produced in Claudius Innocentius du Paquier’s eighteenth-century Viennese porcelain factory, highlighting examples from the Melinda and Paul Sullivan Collection that are currently on loan to the Clark.

Founded in Vienna in 1718, the Du Paquier ceramic manufactory was only the second factory in Europe able to make porcelain in the true manner of the Chinese. This small porcelain enterprise developed a highly distinctive style that remained Baroque in inspiration throughout the history of the factory, which was taken over by the State in 1744. Du Paquier produced a range of tablewares, decorative vases, and small-scale sculpture that enjoyed great popularity with the Habsburg court and Austrian nobility.

Meredith Chilton is chief curator at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, Canada, a museum devoted to ceramics. She edited the fully illustrated, three-volume Fired by Passion: Vienna Baroque Porcelain of Claudius Innocentius du Paquier (2009), the first major study to focus solely on Du Paquier’s manufactory in more than 50 years.

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 more than 240,000 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 is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. For more information, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.

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