For Immediate Release
March 12, 2024
CLARK ART INSTITUTE RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC PROGRAM PRESENTS LECTURE FRAMING
EDGAR DEGAS AS INVESTIGATOR OF
THE LIFE OF MATTER AND THE MATTER OF ART
Williamstown, Massachusetts—On Tuesday, April 9 at 5:30 pm, the Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program presents a lecture by Michelle Foa (Tulane University/Florence Gould Foundation Fellow) in its auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center. Foa frames Edgar Degas as an artist who was committed, above all, to investigating the life of matter and the matter of art, and whose career-long fixation on materials informed his work, practices, and interests in remarkable and little-understood ways. Foa is the co-curator of the Clark’s upcoming Edgar Degas: Multi-Media Artist in the Age of Impressionism exhibition, along with Anne Leonard, the Clark’s Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. The exhibition is on view from July 13 through October 6, 2024.
Described by a close friend as “an artisan passionate about all the means of his art” and his work characterized by one critic as “a strange collection of trials and errors,” Degas’ corpus was thoroughly shaped by his penchant for experimentation with diverse media and processes. More than a century after his death, there is still a great deal left to discover about the complexity and significance of Degas’ unusual modes of production; his intertwining of motif, making, and media throughout his work; and his consistent testing of the possibilities and limits of representation.
Michelle Foa is associate professor of art history at Tulane University, where she focuses primarily on nineteenth-century European art and visual and material culture. Her current research interests include the history and ecology of artists’ materials; the relationships between art, science, and technology; the history of conservation; and the intersections of art history and environmental studies. At the Clark she will work on two book projects: The Matter of Edgar Degas and The Making and Unmaking of Nineteenth-Century Paper. The former analyzes the conceptual complexity of the artist’s material and technical experimentation and his various strategies for evoking the materiality and heft of the world around him in pictorial form. The latter draws out the network of global developments that dramatically reshaped the production and consumption of paper over the course of the nineteenth century and explores the impact of these developments on artistic and cultural production of the period.
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A reception at 5 pm in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events.
The next Research and Academic Program lecture is presented by writer Daegan Miller who examines the complex history of race and the idealized image of the wilderness of the nineteenth-century Adirondacks. The event takes place on Tuesday, April 23 at 5:30 pm in the Clark’s auditorium.
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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