For Immediate Release
April 6, 2022
CLARK ART INSTITUTE PRESENTS ARTIST TALK
AND BOOK LAUNCH WITH ANNE THOMPSON
(Williamstown, Massachusetts)—Artist Anne Thompson visits the Clark Art Institute on Wednesday, April 27 at 6 pm to discuss her recent exhibition, Trail Signs, in which she installed forty-eight unique prints on the Clark’s wayfinding kiosks over the course of the winter. Thompson discusses her artistic and curatorial practice in conversation with the Clark’s Robert Weisenberger, associate curator of contemporary projects, and celebrates the launch of her limited-edition artist’s book documenting the project. This event is presented live in the Clark’s auditorium. Advance registration is required. For more information and to register, visit clarkart.edu/events.
Thompson (b. 1963 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina) has long explored the shifting meaning of signs and symbols in relation to their social setting, whether making paintings, prints, or outdoor projections. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she began designing posters featuring bold, black-and-white symbols and installed them on trail kiosks throughout Berkshire County. Thompson’s unsanctioned project sought to engage and complicate public messaging at a time when people increasingly ventured into, and sought meaning in, the outdoors. As striking as they are mysterious, her abstract forms suggest public wayfinding, but also digital iconography, modernist logotypes, or even ancient languages. In Trail Signs, Thompson continued this series at the Clark and on the adjacent town trails maintained by the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation.
Thompson, a resident of Williamstown, and a visual arts faculty member at Bennington College where she is director and curator of the Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery, used trail kiosks around the Clark for a rotating installation. By mixing metaphors—organic and artificial, public and private, old and new, evocative and opaque—Thompson invited open-ended and ephemeral encounters on the trails.
Anne Thompson: Trail Signs was organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Robert Wiesenberger, associate curator of contemporary projects. This project was presented in partnership with Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation.
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 285,000 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. Its 140-acre campus includes miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing an exceptional experience of art in nature. Galleries are open 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday, from September through June, and daily in July and August. Advance timed tickets are strongly recommended. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, all visitors age 21 and under, and students with a valid student ID. Free admission is available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and EBT Card to Culture. For information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.
Visitors age five and older must provide proof of having been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter our facilities. Face masks are optional for all vaccinated visitors age five and older. For details on health and safety protocols, visit clarkart.edu/health.
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