The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Offers "Clark Remix" to Explore Their Collection

Written by Thomas Starling Sunday, 12 February 2012 20:35

Williamstown, Massachusetts.- The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute presents its renowned permanent collection in an entirely new way with "Clark Remix", a dynamic salon-style installation featuring some 80 paintings, 20 sculptures, and 300 of the institute’s finest examples of decorative arts. Two new interactive programs, uCurate and uExplore, accompany the exhibition, offering visitors a unique opportunity to actively engage in the curatorial process and providing virtual access to the Clark’s collection. These innovative applications will allow visitors to learn more about the collection using computers, tablets, and touchscreens available in the galleries, or on their own personal devices. Clark Remix is one of the ClarkNOW exhibitions that the Clark announced last October in conjunction with the launch of its campus expansion project. ClarkNOW is a series of more than 60 programs that the institute will present in Williamstown, New York, and abroad over the next two years as it extends its reach during a time of transformation on its campus. Opening February 12th, Clark Remix will be on view through 2013 in the Manton Research Center on the Clark’s campus.

“Clark Remix represents one of many programs that the Clark is developing to engage audiences in exciting ways,” said Michael Conforti, Director of the Clark. “Clark Remix allows us to present our permanent collection in an installation that is both beautiful and innovative.  Our salon-style presentation provides a very different and intriguing perspective on many of the works that have become familiar favorites for Clark visitors. Adding virtual components to the exhibition allows us to reach new audiences and invite them to discover and interact with our collection”. Inspired by intimate sixteenth-century Kunstkammern (private displays of art) and visually dynamic nineteenthcentury salon exhibitions, Clark Remix features surprising groupings of works from different periods and places hung in close proximity. Paintings of Roman ruins are displayed alongside paintings of American seascapes; a Renaissance Madonna painting rests amidst femmes fatales; and silver teapots are displayed opposite bronze ballerinas, inspiring visitors to consider juxtapositions among the works.


The digital applications uCurate and uExplore spark inspiration and provide information on the works featured in the exhibition. Accessible at touchscreens and computer kiosks in the galleries, uCurate invites users to choose from more than 250 works featured in Clark Remix to create their own virtual exhibitions in a 3D version of one of the Clark’s special exhibition galleries. Users are afforded the opportunity to make decisions about their installations in much the same way that curators design an exhibition: choosing which works to incorporate, the arrangement of works on walls and on pedestals, the color of the walls, and the development of an introductory curator’s statement. Users may post their designs on the Clark website and share them online via social media outlets. The Clark’s curatorial team will regularly review the submissions and will select several for actual installation in one of the Clark’s galleries. The “guest curators” who are selected will be invited to act as part of the curatorial team that will bring the virtual arrangement to reality, including working with Clark staff to create labels and wall text and participating in the installation process. uExplore, which can be accessed on tablet computers in the galleries and on the Clark’s website, provides detailed information on each of the 400 works on view, along with related video or audio programs. Visitors can access both programs on their own personal devices through the Clark’s website, clarkart.edu/remix. Clark Remix incorporates a full range of works from the Clark’s collection, including Old Master, American, and Impressionist paintings, as well as a selection of portrait busts that represent the four traditional materials used in sculpture—marble, bronze, terra cotta, and plaster.


In addition to paintings and sculpture, the exhibition includes several hundred works of decorative art drawn from the Clark’s collections of English and American silver, European porcelain, and American glass displayed in floor-to-ceiling cases. Elaborate silver objects made for aristocratic English sideboards confront the more restrained but equally proud wares made in the American colonies; dainty teacups and saucers surround boldly modeled bronze ballerinas; an English milk jug once owned by Benjamin Franklin sits beside salt dishes balanced on the backs of grasshoppers. The Clark created uExplore and uCurate in collaboration with Swim Design Consultants and Virtual Gallerie.

In 1950 Sterling and Francine Clark chartered the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute as a home for their extensive art collection. Opened to public in 1955, the Institute has built upon this extraordinary group of works to become one of the most beloved and respected art museums in the world, known for its intimate galleries and stunning natural environment. One of the few institutions in the United States that combines a public art museum with a complement of research and academic programs, including a major art history library, the Clark is now a leading international center for research and discussion on the nature of art and art history. Building upon the founders' legacy, the Institute has recently unveiled its master plan for the twenty-first century, which fosters the Clark's commitment to providing space for its expanding research and museum programs while maintaining the unique character of its beautiful rural setting. Although the collections have expanded greatly since the opening of the Clark in 1955, their scope and character continue to represent the taste and interests of Sterling and Francine Clark. Thus the collections focus almost exclusively on European and American painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative art from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. The Institute's greatest strengths lie in nineteenth-century European and American painting, especially the French Impressionists; English silver; master drawings and prints; and, in recent years, the Institute's growing collection of early photography. In March 2011, a number of nineteenth-century French paintings from the Clark's noted collection began a three-year international tour. While these paintings are on exhibition elsewhere, many of the Clark's other beloved works, including exceptional works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Winslow Homer, and John Singer Sargent continue to delight visitors. A rigorous program of special exhibitions further complements the Clark's esteemed permanent collection. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.clarkart.edu

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