ROMANTIC DRAWINGS TOPIC OF LECTURE AT CLARK ART INSTITUTE
March 30, 2018
Williamstown, Massachusetts—Matthew Hargraves, chief curator of art collections at the Yale Center for British Art, presents the free lecture “Visionaries: Romantic Drawings from the Thaw Collection” at the Clark Art Institute on Sunday, April 15 at 3 pm. The lecture coincides with the Clark’s exhibition Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection, on view through April 22. It will be held in the auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center.
Drawn to Greatness includes some of collector Eugene Thaw’s finest Romantic drawings, among them outstanding works of art by William Blake, Caspar David Friedrich, and J.M.W. Turner. Hargraves focuses on the visionary qualities of these Romantic artists and explores how they abandoned the simple imitation of the natural world to capture truths beyond the reach of the human eye.
Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection is organized by the Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Presentation at the Clark is made possible by the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust. Major support is provided by the Fernleigh Foundation in memory of Clare Thaw. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
ABOUT MATTHEW HARGRAVES
Matthew Hargraves specializes in the history of British art, particularly the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. He is the author of a variety of publications, including Candidates for Fame: The Society of Artists of Great Britain (2006); Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (2007); Varieties of Romantic Experience: British, Danish, Dutch, French, and German Drawings from the Collection of Charles Ryskamp (2010); and A Dialogue with Nature: Romantic Landscapes from Britain and Germany (2014). Hargraves earned his BA from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, and both his MA in 2000 and PhD in 2003 from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, all in the history of art.
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 270,000 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. 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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