For Immediate Release
January 25, 2023

CLARK ART INSTITUTE RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC PROGRAM PRESENTS LECTURE ON ARTISTIC CONCEPTS RELATED TO TREES

Williamstown, Massachusetts—On Tuesday, February 7 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program hosts a talk by Research and Academic Program Fellow Jonathan Flatley on artistic concepts related to liking trees. The talk takes place in the Clark’s auditorium and is free and open to the public. A reception in the Manton Research Center reading room at 5 pm precedes the program. 

In his lecture, Flatley argues that liking (as distinct from love) is a feeling capable of motivating collective opposition to the ongoing, massive, catastrophic destruction of forests. He makes his case through an examination of two distinct projects: Richard Powers’ novel The Overstory (2018) and Zoe Leonard’s photographs of trees that have grown into, around, or through fences. These projects illuminate that the way to create collectives opposed to deforestation is through a liking for trees that leads to becoming like trees. This “likeness-creating liking” opens people to the strange specificity of arboreal being and to an entanglement with trees.

Jonathan Flatley is professor of English at Wayne State University in Detroit. His research concerns collective emotion as it takes shape in aesthetic forms, and he is the author of Affective Mapping: Melancholia and the Politics of Modernism (Harvard University Press, 2008), Like Andy Warhol (University of Chicago Press, 2017), and co-editor, with Jennifer Doyle and José Esteban Muñoz, of Pop Out: Queer Warhol (Duke University Press, 1996). He recently completed a new book titled Black Leninism: How Revolutionary Counter-Moods Are Made. At the Clark, Flatley is working on a book about liking and being like trees.

Free; no registration is required. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events. 

The next Research and Academic Program lecture is presented by Sergei Tcherepnin (Bennington College), who explores the intersections of sound, sculpture, and theater. The event takes place on Thursday, February 9 at 5:30 pm.

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. 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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