The Clark's collection of drawings, prints, and photographs consists of some 5,300 works assembled over a period of 95 years. Sterling Clark bought his first drawings and prints while living in Paris during the early 1910s. After marrying in 1919, Sterling and Francine Clark continued to collect works on paper until the opening of the museum in 1955. At that time, their portfolios contained nearly 500 drawings and 1,400 prints spanning the fifteenth through the early twentieth centuries. Fifty years later, the museum's holdings of works on paper, broadened to include early photography in 1998, have experienced the most dramatic growth of any area of its collections.

Through purchases and gifts the collection continues to grow, and with every new acquisition, the balance of the whole changes in myriad ways. Interesting new relationships form between its parts, and the complex web of interconnections is enriched with each passing year. This exhibition of 100 works on paper celebrates the depth and breadth of the Clark's collection of drawings, prints, and photographs by weaving together some of its greatest treasures in an unbroken paper trail. 

A PAPER TRAIL

This exhibition is arranged as a continuous trail in which art objects produced in diverse times, places, and techniques link up with each other in several different ways. Highlighted words or phrases in the texts bring out the nature of the connections, which may be visual, technical, or historical. In this layout, any work may serve as the starting point, and the trail may be followed in either direction, until it loops back to the beginning.

A theory of social networking known as "six degrees of separation" states that any two individuals selected at random from the general population may be connected to each other through, at most, five acquaintances. The connections between works of art, and the people who created them, form a specialized network of intersections, crosscurrents, influences, and even rivalries. Paper Trails demonstrates how any single print, drawing, or photograph can be the starting point for an enlightening journey through the history of art.