On view at the Clark: Undertow, Winslow Homer, 1886, oil on canvas. Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark, 1924
An example of a work in the Clark's permanent collection: In 1883, Homer witnessed an event near Atlantic City, New Jersey, that allegedly inspired this dramatic painting. Rescuers try to haul ashore two women, weighed down by their waterlogged bathing dresses, in danger of being pulled beneath the waves by an undertow. The figures appear as three-dimensional and solid as the ancient Greek marble statues on which they were modeled. Yet despite their muscularity and apparent strength, their struggle suggests human frailty in the face of the sea’s awesome power.
Undertow
1886
Oil on canvas
29 13/16 x 47 5/8 in. (75.7 x 121 cm) Frame: 40 3/16 x 58 7/8 x 4 in. (102.1 x 149.5 x 10.2 cm)
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark, 1924
- See more at: http://www.clarkart.edu/Art-Pieces/2823#sthash.bNfO0sxW.dpufUndertow
1886
Oil on canvas
29 13/16 x 47 5/8 in. (75.7 x 121 cm) Frame: 40 3/16 x 58 7/8 x 4 in. (102.1 x 149.5 x 10.2 cm)
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark, 1924
- See more at: http://www.clarkart.edu/Art-Pieces/2823#sthash.bNfO0sxW.dpufUndertow
1886
Oil on canvas
29 13/16 x 47 5/8 in. (75.7 x 121 cm) Frame: 40 3/16 x 58 7/8 x 4 in. (102.1 x 149.5 x 10.2 cm)
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark, 1924
- See more at: http://www.clarkart.edu/Art-Pieces/2823#sthash.bNfO0sxW.dpufIn addition, the Clark is presenting two other special exhibitions in the Visitor Center and at Stone Hill Center this summer.
In the Visitor Center, Cast for Eternity: Ancient Ritual Bronzes from the Shanghai Museum has opened in the West Pavilion. Cast for Eternity is drawn from the core of the Shanghai Museum’s exceptional collection of bronze vessels and bells dating from the late Xia through the Western Han dynasties (c. 1800 BCE–c. 8 CE). The thirty-two objects in the exhibition show the range of artistic expression and variety of sculptural forms realized during China's Bronze Age. The exhibition is designed by Selldorf Architects, New York and is the first installation in the West Pavilion. Cast for Eternity is on view through September 21, 2014.
Raw Color: The Circles of David Smith is on exhibit at Stone Hill Center. The exhibition assembles nine sculptures and three paintings related to the artist’s Circle series (1962–63). Smith's boldly painted steel constructions are on display both indoors and outdoors at the Tadao Ando-designed Stone Hill Center, resituating them against a Berkshires setting that is similar to (and less than one hundred miles away from) the Adirondack site where Smith created and installed them. The exhibition at the Clark explores the crucial role that industrial color and its relationship to nature played in the work of one of the twentieth century’s most influential and celebrated sculptors. The exhibition is on view through October 19, 2014.
The collection of the Clark Art Institute features European and American paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, and decorative arts from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. The collection is especially rich in French Impressionist and Academic paintings, British oil sketches, drawings, and silver, and the work of American artists Winslow Homer, George Inness, and John Singer Sargent. Based on the founding gift from Sterling and Francine Clark, the collection has expanded over the years through numerous acquisitions as well as significant gifts and bequests, including the gift of the Sir Edwin and Lady Manton Collection of British Art and the gift of paintings by George Inness by Frank and Katherine Martucci.
About the Clarks
In 1910, after a distinguished career in the United States Army, Sterling Clark settled in Paris and began collecting works of art, an interest he may have inherited from his parents. When he married Francine Clary in 1919, she joined him in what quickly became a shared passion. Together they created a remarkable collection of paintings, silver, sculpture, porcelain, drawings, and prints with complete reliance on their own judgments and tastes. In 1950 the Clarks founded the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute as a permanent home for their collection, and the museum first opened to the public in 1955. Since its conception, the Institute has had a dual mission as both a museum and a center for research and higher education. It is in this spirit that the Clark has expanded over the past six decades to become the influential institution it is today.
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