Related EVENTS
HAND-BUILDING HANDS
June 14, 16, 28, and 30, 2–4 pm
Clark Center Carswell Room
Join us for a four-part ceramics workshop series examining the expressive qualities of hands in Auguste Rodin’s sculptures and drawings. Explore the exhibition Rodin in the United States, sketch, discuss how hands convey emotion, discover techniques and the vocabulary of ceramics, and create meaningful personal sculptures from clay. Each participant leaves the series with a hand-built glazed hand and a new understanding of Rodin’s work.
Registration and participation in all four sessions is required. Register at clarkart.edu/events. Workshop capacity limited. Participants must be age 16 or older. $25 per person includes materials and instruction for all four sessions.
OPENING CELEBRATION: RODIN IN THE UNITED STATES—CONFRONTING THE MODERN
June 17, 7 pm
Clark Center
Join in a community-wide celebration, enjoy light refreshments, and be among the first to view the Clark’s major summer exhibition.
Free. RSVP required. Register at clarkart.edu/RodinOpening or call 413 458 0425.
OPENING LECTURE: RODIN IN THE UNITED STATES—CONFRONTING THE MODERN
June 18, 11 am
Auditorium and On Zoom
Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, the exhibition curator and former director general of the National Institute of the History of Art in Paris, presents the opening lecture of Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. The exhibition and the lecture examine the artist’s legacy in the U.S.
Free. Presented live in the Clark’s auditorium and broadcast simultaneously on Zoom. Advance registration for the Zoom transmission is required. Register at clarkart.edu/events.
SUMMER BOOK CLUB: THE GIRL WITH THE GOLDEN EYES AND OTHER STORIES BY HONORÉ DE BALZAC
June 30, 7 pm
Manton Research Center Reading Room
The summer book club series begins with Honoré de Balzac, The Girl with the Golden Eyes and Other Stories, translated by Peter Collier. In 1891, Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) received a commission to create a monument to the influential and prolific French writer Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). Rodin carefully researched the long-dead author and read his novels. Three novellas from Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine—a series of some ninety finished inter-linked novels and stories illustrating contemporary French life—will provide insight into the author and the sculptor who memorialized him. The novellas include The Girl with the Golden Eyes, The Unknown Masterpiece, and Sarrasine.
Each meeting is free, but capacity is limited. Copies of all book club titles are available through the Museum Store, in-person or online. Register at clarkart.edu/events for each meeting you would like to attend. Reservations open one month before each meeting.
GALLERY TALK: RODIN IN THE UNITED STATES—CONFRONTING THE MODERN
Daily in July and August, 10:30 am and 3:30 pm
Meet in the Clark Center lower lobby
Learn more about Rodin, his work, and the story of how he and his sculptures became household names.
Free with gallery admission. Pick up a ticket at the Clark Center Admissions desk on a first-come, first-served basis. Headphones required; pick up a pair at the Media Guide desk in the Clark Center lower lobby. Capacity is limited to twenty participants per talk. Headphones required; pick up a pair at the Media Guide desk in the Clark Center lower lobby.
DROP-IN SAND CASTING: WEEKLY ART-MAKING
Thursdays in July and August, 1–4 pm
Every Thursday in July and August, come learn about sand-casting, a traditional method for making sculpture that Rodin and his team used for some of the works on view in Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. Using sand and plaster, create your very own 3-D work of art to take home!
Free and open to the public.
HIGHLIGHTS TALK: SCULPTURE IN TWO DIMENSIONS
July 13, 1–1:30 pm
Manton Study Center for Works on Paper
Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Anne Leonard explores a selection of works on paper that directly engage with nineteenth- century French sculpture. Images of and by Auguste Rodin share the stage with photographs from the same era documenting monumental sculptures in Paris.
Free. Capacity is limited to twenty visitors on a first-come, first-served basis.
JONAH BOKAER CHOREOGRAPHY: FALLEN ANGEL
July 23, 3 pm
Auditorium
Jacob Pillow’s alumus Jonah Bokaer performs a solo choreography inspired by Auguste Rodin’s sculpture, Fallen Angel. Bokaer, both a choreographer and a visual artist, began his professional dance career with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and theatre artist Robert Wilson. He brings his unique perspective on the intersection of dance and the visual arts to the Clark with this bespoke performance.
Tickets are $10 ($8 for members, $7 for students, and $5 for children 12 and under). Register at clarkart.edu/events.
ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION: SCULPTOR VIRGINIA OVERTON ON PROCESS AND RODIN
July 24, 2 pm
Auditorium
Sculptor Virginia Overton speaks about her process, use of materials, and relationship to Auguste Rodin. Overton, whose work is being presented in this year’s Venice Biennale, has a vivid childhood memory of attending a Rodin exhibition. Yet, at first glance, her practice provides an enlightening contrast to Rodin’s work.
Free.
DANCE PERFORMANCE: ANGKOR DANCE TROUPE
August 6, 4 pm
Auditorium
The Angkor Dance Troupe (ADT) is nationally recognized as one of the most accomplished and experienced United States-based Cambodian traditional arts organizations. Based out of Lowell, Massachusetts, the ADT takes Auguste Rodin’s thrilled, feverish response to the royal dancers of Cambodia—an inspirational encounter that led to Rodin making about 150 watercolors of the costumed dancers—as an opportunity to explore the history of preserving Cambodian dance over the intervening 116 years, and a chance to connect across war and the diaspora.
Tickets $10, $8 for members, $7 for students, and $5 for children 12 and under. Register at clarkart.edu/events. This performance is made possible by the Henry Luce Foundation.
DESIGNING RODIN: A CONVERSATION ABOUT EXHIBITION AND BOOK DESIGN
August 11, 12 pm
Virtual
Exhibition designer Jarrod Beck and book designer Roy Brooks discuss their creative process in working on the Clark’s exhibition, Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern.
Free. Presented via Zoom and Facebook Live. Advance registration for the Zoom transmission is required.
RODIN’S THINKERS
August 27, 2 pm
Auditorium and on Zoom
Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen, associate director of the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art at the Clark Art Institute, sketches Rodin’s path between two of his great monumental works, The Thinker and the Monument to Balzac.
Free. Advance registration for the Zoom transmission is required. Register at clarkart.edu/events.
CLASSICAL CONCERT: THE KNIGHTS ORCHESTRA
September 4, 4 pm
The Knights return to the Clark to celebrate the Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern exhibition with a selection of music from the French composers Ravel and Debussy.
Free. Bring a picnic and your own seating. Inclement weather postpones this event until Monday, September 5, 4 pm. This performance is presented through the generous support of Mela and Paul Haklisch.
MAKING THE MAKING THE "LITTLE RODIN GALLERY:" THE RODIN COLLECTION AT THE MET
September 10, 11 am
Metropolitan Museum of Art Assistant Curator Elyse Nelson chronicles the making of the “Little Rodin Gallery” (1912) at The Met. Her talk features rarely seen images and new research illuminating how key collectors, donors, curators, and Auguste Rodin himself collaborated to build a collection that would compose the Museum’s first-ever gallery dedicated to the work of a living artist.
Free.