For Immediate Release
August 9, 2022

CLARK ART INSTITUTE PRESENTS TALK EXPLORING MONUMENTAL WORKS BY RODIN

Williamstown, Massachusetts—On Saturday, August 27, the Clark Art Institute presents a talk by Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen, acting director of the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art at the Clark Art Institute. The lecture takes place in the Clark’s auditorium and will be broadcast simultaneously on Zoom at 2 pm. No registration is needed to attend the live event, but registration is required for the Zoom transmission. Registrants will receive an email with a private Zoom link to this live virtual program before the event. For more information and to register, visit clarkart.edu/events.

Butterfield-Rosen examines two of Rodin’s well-known pieces, The Thinker and Monument to Balzac. In tracing the route between these pieces, she explains how and why this journey marks a striking transition in Rodin’s representations of thinking and thought. Her talk complements the Clark’s current special exhibition Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. On view at the Clark through September 18, 2022, the exhibition explores how American museums and collectors embraced Auguste Rodin’s sculptures and drawings, and traces the arc of the artist’s reputation and legacy since the first United States museum acquisition was made in 1893. With more than seventy works from more than thirty collections, this is the largest Rodin exhibition presented in more than forty years.

ABOUT EMMELYN BUTTERFIELD-ROSEN
Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen is an art historian and critic based in Williamstown, Massachusetts and New York City. She received a bachelor of arts degree from Columbia University and a PhD. from Princeton University, with a certificate in the Program in Media & Modernity. Butterfield-Rosen joined the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art at the Clark Art Institute in 2016 as a Post-Doctoral Fellow was named associate director of the program in 2019. She has held fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. 

Butterfield-Rosen specializes in modern art and cultural history, primarily in Europe. Relations between modern art and modern sciences of the human subject are a guiding preoccupation of her teaching and research. Broad areas of interest include the history of art and archaeology; the history of art criticism; philosophical and scientific theories of the aesthetic; archaism and primitivisms; interactions between the visual and performing arts; the history of dance and early film; theories of gesture and corporeal expression; and the history of biology, psychology and psychoanalysis—especially with reference to the history of sexuality. She is the author of Modern Art and the Remaking of Human Disposition, which examines how artists broke with traditional ways of posing the bodies of human figures at the turn of the twentieth century to reflect modern understandings of human consciousness.

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 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. 

Use of facemasks is optional for all visitors. For details on health and safety protocols, visit clarkart.edu/health.

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