CLARK ART INSTITUTE NAMES ANNE LEONARD AS MANTON CURATOR OF PRINTS, DRAWINGS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS

For Immediate Release
October 11, 2018
[Digital image available upon request]

Williamstown, Massachusetts—The Clark Art Institute announces the appointment of Anne Leonard as the Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. Leonard will be responsible for the care and growth of the Clark’s works on paper collection, oversee the ongoing exhibition program in the Eugene V. Thaw Gallery for Works on Paper, supervise the Manton Study Center for Works on Paper, and contribute to other curatorial and academic initiatives. She joins the Clark staff in January 2019.

“Anne Leonard is an inspired curator and a talented teacher—a combination that will be so important to her role as the Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs,” said Olivier Meslay, the Hardymon Director of the Clark Art Institute. “While her expertise in nineteenth-century European art is ideally suited to the scope of our collection, Anne brings great insight and curiosity about the entire works on paper collection. Her creativity will surely inform the exhibitions she will organize at the Clark. The collection is also a vital teaching tool—both for our colleagues at Williams College and for educators, students, and scholars from around the world—and Anne will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable resource and collaborator.”

Leonard currently serves as Senior Curator of European Art and Director of Publications and Research at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago and as a lecturer in the history of art on the University of Chicago’s faculty. She has been a member of the Smart’s curatorial staff for fifteen years, holding a series of progressively responsible positions. She holds an MA and PhD in the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University with a BA in French.

“We are particularly impressed with Anne’s understanding of the unique role the Manton Curator plays here at the Clark,” said Esther Bell, Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Chief Curator and Curator of Painting and Sculpture. “She arrives at a pivotal moment that holds tremendous opportunity, both in terms of continuing to grow the works on paper collection and in creating unique and exciting programs to engage students and visitors in exploring and enjoying this very special facet of the Clark. She is a wonderful addition to our curatorial team.”

Leonard has participated in nearly thirty exhibitions at the Smart as a curator, co-curator, or coordinating curator, working in collaboration with other organizers including the National Gallery of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the McMullen Museum of Art (Boston College), and the Grey Art Gallery (New York University). She has co-edited, authored, and contributed to an extensive number of publications.

“As a premier museum, research institute, and training ground for art historians, the Clark offers an exceptional opportunity to serve both the public and scholarly missions of our field,” Leonard said. “I am thrilled to begin working with the Clark's first-rate collections, beautiful facilities, and talented staff to generate projects that will further the extraordinary potential of the Manton Study Center for Works on Paper. It is also a great pleasure to return to the Berkshires, a region I first fell in love with as a teenager.”

The position of Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs was endowed in 2007 by the New York-based Manton Foundation with a $50 million gift that provided support to establish the Manton Study Center for Works on Paper and the Manton Gallery of British Art, along with funding for the Clark’s Research and Academic Program. The Manton Foundation’s gift also included more than 300 paintings, oil sketches, watercolors, and other works on paper by British artists including J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, and Thomas Gainsborough that were part of the personal collection of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton. The Clark’s works on paper collection is rich and varied, numbering more than 6,000 prints, drawings, and photographs spanning the history of graphic arts from the fifteenth century through the early twentieth century. Artists represented in the collection include Albrecht Dürer, Edgar Degas, Winslow Homer, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Käthe Kollwitz, Alfred Stieglitz, and Julia Margaret Cameron.

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 Institute’s library, consisting of more than 275,000 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. Galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm; open daily in July and August. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. Free admission is available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; EBT Card to Culture; Bank of America Museums on Us; and Blue Star Museums. For more information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.

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