For Immediate Release
October 27, 2023
CLARK ART INSTITUTE CELEBRATION OF 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF MANTON RESEARCH CENTER INCLUDES NEW EXHIBITIONS AND
SPECIAL PROGRAMMING
(Williamstown, Massachusetts)—The Clark Art Institute is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its Manton Research Center building through a year-long series of exhibitions, events, and a special publication detailing the history of the building. The building provides a space for the enjoyment of art, the exploration of ideas, and numerous community activities. The Manton Research Center is the home to the Clark’s works on paper collection and hosts spaces dedicated to their presentation and research with both the Manton Study Center for Works on Paper and the Eugene V. Thaw Gallery for Works on Paper. The Manton Research Center also houses the Institute’s library, exhibition galleries, the offices and classrooms for the Williams College/Clark Graduate Program in the History of Art, the Clark’s auditorium, and its administrative offices.
“The Manton Research Center is the beating heart of the Clark Art Institute,” said Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark. “This building is central to every aspect of what we do here, from exploring our galleries featuring our British art collection and decorative arts collections, to all of the many ways in which students, scholars, visitors, and museum professionals use the space and the resources found in this building to study art, pursue research, learn from one another, and exchange information on a wide array of topics.
The Manton Research Center was designed by renowned architect Pietro Belluschi, working with The Architects’ Collaborative, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was completed in 1973. In 2016, Annabelle Selldorf, principal of Selldorf Architects, completed a major renovation. In 2007, the Manton Art Foundation made a gift to the Clark of more than 300 paintings, drawings, and prints by British artists, together with an endowment of $50 million, constituting the most significant contribution of art to the Clark since its founding in 1955. The Manton Collection of British Art consists of works by artists including Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, and Joseph Mallord William Turner, and was created by business leader and arts patron Sir Edwin A. G. Manton (1909–2005) and his wife Florence, Lady Manton (1911–2003). In recognition of the Manton family’s extraordinary generosity and their commitment to research and higher education, the Clark honored Sir Edwin and Lady Manton by rededicating the red granite building as the Manton Research Center in 2007.
To honor the milestone anniversary, the Clark presents two exhibitions opening later this autumn celebrating its works on paper collection. On November 18, the Clark opens 50 Years and Forward: British Prints and Drawings Acquisitions in the Eugene V. Thaw Gallery of the Manton Research Center. On December 16, the large-scale exhibition 50 Years and Forward: Works on Paper Acquisitions opens in the Clark Center’s special exhibition galleries.
On view through February 11, 2024, 50 Years and Forward: British Prints and Drawings Acquisitions is a celebration of British works on paper collected by the Clark over the past fifty years. British art did not constitute a major focus of Sterling and Francine Clark’s collecting and despite occasional acquisitions in this area in the early years of the Institute, it was not until the gift of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton’s collection that British art rose dramatically in significance and visibility at the Clark. The Clark’s continuing commitment to collecting British art continues now with exciting recent acquisitions shown here for the first time. This exhibition celebrates the quality and breadth of British works on paper at the Clark, with highlights including Thomas Rowlandson, J. M. W. Turner, Thomas Girtin, H.W. Williams, Samuel Palmer, Thomas Frye, Evelyn de Morgan, Anna Alma-Tadema, and more.
In December, the opening of 50 Years and Forward: Works on Paper Acquisitions marks another celebratory climax with a selection of prints, drawings, and photographs acquired between 1973 and 2023. On view from December 16, 2023 through March 10, 2024, the exhibition features recent acquisitions and other works never before shown at the Clark. It celebrates both the growth of classic areas of strength and the emergence of fresh collecting territories. Along with familiar works by artists including Albrecht Dürer, Francisco Goya, Édouard Manet, and Mary Cassatt, 50 Years and Forward: Works on Paper Acquisitions highlights lesser-known parts of the collection, including early twentieth-century art, photographs by Berenice Abbott and Doris Ulmann, and important images of and by Black Americans. With each passing year and decade, the Clark reaffirms its commitment to the storied collecting mission of its founders Sterling and Francine Clark, modifying and expanding it to meet the needs of a new era.
Both exhibitions were curated by Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. Leonard presents a free opening lecture covering the two exhibitions on Saturday, December 16 at 11 am in the Clark’s auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center.
In November, the Clark’s Research and Academic Program hosts a special symposium on British art. The program includes:
Curating British Art: A Conversation with Olivier Meslay
November 29, 5:30 pm. Free.
Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark, and Caroline Fowler, Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program, discuss Meslay’s experience curating British art, and how the field of British art has changed since Meslay mounted one of the first exhibitions dedicated to British art at the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1994, British Art in French Collections. A scholar of British art, Meslay brings his experience of working within both French and American institutions to consider how shifting ideas of borders, nationalism, art history, and exhibition trends have transformed not only the field of British art but also museum practice and exhibitions more widely.
British Art 1750–1919: Reflections and Futures Symposium
November 30, 9 am–5 pm. Free.
In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Manton Research Center building, this symposium is an opportunity to reflect on the Manton Collection of British Art, one of the strongest collections of British art assembled in the last fifty years. The Research and Academic Program, in collaboration with the Williams College/Clark Graduate Program in the History of Art, convenes scholars—former fellows, staff, and Williams students—whose work has been influenced by their time within the Manton building.
The fiftieth anniversary celebration continues with a special film series, Great British Films, honoring Sir Edwin Manton’s British roots. The four-part program showcases British cinematic masterpieces released during the last fifty years.
Manton Film Series: Great British Films
Thursday, November 2
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949; 1 hour, 46 minutes)
Fiendishly funny, Kind Hearts and Coronets stands as one of Ealing Studios’ greatest triumphs and one of the most wicked comedies ever made. Dennis Price is sublime as an embittered young commoner determined to avenge his mother’s unjust disinheritance by ascending to her family’s dukedom. Unfortunately, eight relatives, all played by Alec Guinness, must be eliminated before he can do so.
Thursday, November 9
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951; 1 hour, 23 minutes)
The Lavender Hill Mob might be the archetypal Ealing comedy. It’s got everything the studio is famous for—loveable crooks, class conflict, London streets, avuncular bobbies, pratfalls, slapstick, tea, buns, and Alec Guinness—but with a Hitchcock-inspired thriller plot that makes it the most enthralling of their features. Guinness and Stanley Holloway play the bumbling suburbanites whose plot to hijack a van full of gold bullion and smuggle it abroad disguised as Eiffel Tower paperweights leads to all manner of hijinks and hysteria. Charles Crichton’s direction is subtle but inventive—check out the snaking, near-single-take opening in a Rio cabana—and the performances, writing, and plotting are faultless.
Thursday, November 30
Chariots of Fire (1981; 2 hours, 3 minutes)
“The British are coming!” screenwriter Colin Welland famously proclaimed, Oscar in hand. While this sporting saga ultimately proved not to herald a British celluloid renaissance, it certainly flew the flag for the industry’s craftsmanship and acting talent. Although often remembered as a celebration of gritty Brits triumphing over much-fancied Americans, Chariots of Fire is actually a portrait of social outsiders making their contribution to the greater national good: Ian Charleson’s God-fearing Scot who refuses to run on the Sabbath and Ben Cross’s Jewish sprinter. First-time director Hugh Hudson was—like Alan Parker and Ridley Scott before him—recruited by producer David Puttnam from the advertising world. His skilled commercial aesthetic is exemplified by the striking juxtaposition of 1920s athletes and Vangelis’s modern electronic score.
All screenings are free and begin at 6 pm in the Clark’s auditorium.
ABOUT THE MANTON RESEARCH CENTER
Housed within the Manton Research Center are dedicated spaces for art, including three permanent collection galleries: the Burrows Gallery of American Decorative Arts, the Lauzon Glass Study Gallery, and the Manton Gallery for British Art, and a special exhibition gallery, the Eugene V. Thaw Gallery for Works on Paper. The building is home to the Manton Study Center for Works on Paper, which holds more than 6,500 prints, drawings, and photographs.
The Clark’s library holds some 300,000 volumes of rare books, artists’ books, special collections, and more and is visited by over 10,000 students, scholars, researchers, and members of the general public annually. Also located within the Manton Research Center are the offices for the Clark’s Research and Academic Program (RAP) and its cohort of Fellows who are in residence for anywhere from three to twelve months. There have been over 400 RAP Fellows in the last twenty-five years since RAP began, consisting of the top researchers, academics, and museum professionals from around the globe. RAP presents dozens of scholarly programs annually.
The offices and teaching facilities for the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art are located in the Manton Research Center. Approximately twelve students complete the renowned Williams College/Clark Graduate Program annually, with an alumni network now numbering some 600 graduates of the program. The Clark’s administrative offices are also located in the Manton building.
These spaces, combined with the reading room, an ArtLab for art-making, and a spacious auditorium for lectures, films, and performances see over 150,000 visitors of all ages annually. Over 400 public and member programs (lectures, concerts, films, broadcasts, galleries and book talks, performance, conversations, and more) are held every year. For a complete listing of public programs, including other upcoming fiftieth anniversary events, visit clarkart.edu/events.
Three beehives on the rooftop of the Manton Research Center are home to more than 250,000 honeybees.
A new publication, The Making of the Manton Research Center, provides a comprehensive history of the Manton Research Center and all that happens inside. It is available for purchase in the Museum Store and at clarkart.edu/shop.
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 some 300,000 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. Admission is free January through March and is $20 from March through December; admission is free year-round for Clark members, all visitors age 21 and under, and students with a valid student ID. Free admission is also 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.
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