Be Inspired, and Beware of Bears by Lisa Li

 

           When I first got to Williamstown, the only thing I could see on the horizon were mountains covered with snow, rising against the sky. Breathing in the misty mountain air and feeling so close to the clouds, I was surprised that there were people who lived there. I was even more surprised at the beautiful art museum, Clark Art Institute (AKA The Clark), built just at foot of a mountain. Chartered by couple Sterling and Francine Clark, the Clark Museum was built in 1952 and opened to public in 1955. It collects a wide range of art styles and forms, including Old Master Paintings, 19^th century European Paintings, Impressionist Paintings, American Paintings, European and American decorative arts…you name it! Such a wide variety of arts resulted from the Clark couple’s expeditions around the world and their ardor for arts. Walking through the Clark museum, you could smell the scent of history and the luxury of artistry.

            What fascinated me the most was Gallery 1, the first room you walk into in the classical wing of the museum. A rectangular room with grey walls and dim lighting, the room was simply designed. In the center of the room was a large cubic wall dividing the front and the back of the gallery. Artwork is displayed on each wall of the room and each side of the cube. The simply designed room makes artworks especially stand out to the viewers. The gallery mainly collects American oil paintings that portray the monumental power and mysteries of nature, which resonates with the museum’s close-to-nature location.

            When I walked into Gallery 1, a wall of paintings of the ocean by Winslow Homer gave me chills. Every painting portrays a different aspect of the ocean, but all are dark colored and consist of tumultuous waves, to show the graveness and monumentality of the ocean. Undertow, one of the few paintings by Homer has human figures, particularly caught my attention. Inspired by an accident in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1883, the painting depicts the image of two lifeguards saving two women from drowning in the ocean. In the center of the paining are two women, one of whom leans against the wave with her eyes closed, barely alive. To her right, other woman lies on her stomach against the wave, face down, hanging her arms on the other woman’s neck. Their bathing dresses are soaked wet from the water that has almost devoured their pale, fragile bodies. Two rescuers, each grabbing on to one woman, struggle to drag the women to shore. One of the rescuers’ clothes are torn into pieces by the relentless waves. On the left, the rescuer who leads the way has already lost his clothes and helmet, leaving him only in grey shorts. A huge wave, taller than he is, splashes into him from his right, engulfing his body. He raises his right arm and struggles to fight against it, but his brawny biceps seem too week comparing to the roaring wave. The ocean, painted in different shades of blue, appears so three-dimensional that it looks like it is coming toward us. It covers three-fourths of the painting, and seems like it has no end. Looking at the painting, I wondered, how vast is the ocean? How close is the shore to these people? Are they going to survive the attack of the undertow? All of these factors are unknown. Winslow portrays the vastness and strength of the sea waves and the vulnerability of men to show that men are always too small and weak compared to nature. The unknown factors of nature further provokes human’s fear for nature because it creates unstable situations that humans have no controls over. The painting reminds me that I do not have the control over my life and death. I cannot stop a lightening from hitting me, nor can I prevent cancer from growing in me; only nature can make these decisions. The series of ocean painting by Homer sets a serious tone to the museum. It wakes you up in the morning by reminding you of a significant truth in life.

             In Williamstown, a town that is so closely associated with nature, we spend a lot of time appreciating the beauty of nature. Gallery 1 of The Clark Museum reminds us the danger of nature with its collection of paintings that portray nature’s power and mystery. It reminds us that while the beauty in the Williamstown fascinates us, we always need to beware of bears that may attack us at any moment. Don’t be too scared and depressed by my review, however. The Clark Museum is not all about such serious topic. Right after you walk through Gallery 1, the light-colored impressionist art in Gallery 2 will lighten your mood. I highly recommend that you visit The Clark Museum. Both the design of the building and the artwork are very high in aesthetic value. It is so carefully designed and well crafted that it will not only inspire you, but also teach you to beware of bears.

Rich Getting Richer… by Jonathan Coombs

                You know how the rest of the saying goes. After visiting the Clark Museum in Williamstown on March 17, 2015, I am ready to say that the rich do indeed get richer. I get this from the museums history, which was conveniently provided on the bottom floor. Anyway, on to the review.

                If you are familiar with my reviews, I want you to think back to my review of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. If you aren’t I’ll wait for you to read it. … … … … … Ok your back. So remember my rant of the piano? Well guess what. This museum has a piano. However, they allow people to occasionally play it, so that’s better. Still, an instruments ONLY purpose is to be played, no matter how beautiful it is. This piano has Greek words and letters written on the top of it. There are treble and alto clefs drawn around the side, and the ends of the treble clefs spiral out of control like a coiled wire. There is a painting of people playing instruments facing the pianist, just in case the musician decides they are bored with looking at the music. To the sides of that painting are smaller paintings of string basses and cellos. I quite enjoyed looking at this piano, but I wish I could have seen someone play it.

                A piece within the museum I would like to talk about is Boulevard Rochechooan by Camille Pissarro. This piece shows a street of France, from a view of heightened elevation. Camille shows people going through a midmorning routine, being driven by horse-drawn carriages to buying items from a store.  The piece has a midmorning glow about it, giving it a feeling of waking up. I won’t go into much detail to describe it because there is a picture of it along with this review. The piece does a good job showing the relaxing chaos that welcomes everyone at the beginning of the day. Think about it, you wake up and get busy into your normal routine. You step outside to go to your car or bike or however you get to work. There is a calming moment before you start your travel, isn’t there? Or am I just incredibly insane? Anyway, I quite like this piece.

                Overall, the museum is good. There is one niggle I have with it. There is a board of its history in the basement. It shows how the family was rich before the museum was built. This puts a bad taste in my mouth, as going to the museum is supporting a rich family buying art that everyone could enjoy. It would take too long to explain my philosophy of it. Overall, see it if you have time and money.

                Rating: 8 Big Macs out of 10, you feel embarrassed to admit that you like it, as it is fattening and may not be supportive of your own moral compass.

Beauty in the Everyday By Lilly Harvey

As I wandered through the Sterling and Francine Art Institute, most often referred to as, “The Clark,” I was in awe at the amount of beautiful work featured in this one space.  Everything about this museum is pristine, from the polished marbles floors to the carefully positioned paintings. The Clark Museum features a large body of work including paintings, porcelain, silver prints and drawings from the 14^th to 19^th Centuries.  The museum features work from artists who are both extremely famous and completely obscure but somehow flawlessly combines this wide range of work. 

One particularly gallery that I found especially striking was the impressionist gallery.  The room itself feels large and open with pale purple walls and a shiny wood floor.  The ceiling is made of glass, allowing natural light to filter into the gallery, which brings the colors in the paintings alive.  The paintings are placed throughout the room in such a way so that they balance each other out, while bringing out the best in each piece. 

As I drifted through the gallery I was drawn to one specific oil painting called “The Bath,” by Beth Morisot.  The painting captures a girl sitting beside a bath, pulling her light brown hair into a bun. She is wearing a thin white night gown and on her lap, almost blending into her dress, is a tan colored hairbrush.  Despite her state of partial undress, she seems unselfconscious, with a fixed gaze and confident posture.  While I was looking at the painting I felt as if I was walking into a moment that was both private and beautiful.  I could tell that the girl was a close friend or family member of the painter, simply because of the way the girl was captured.  The palette is made of light pinks, blues, and browns, which give the painting a soft, mellow feeling.  The brush strokes are long and broad, giving the piece a feeling of movement. As I took a closer look at the painting, I was impressed by the way that the colors were blended together.  For example, the nightgown is mostly white but the artist blended streaks of light blue and pink, which added more complex layers of color to the painting.

Perhaps why I was so drawn to this painting was because it was so completely different than the other paintings in the room. Brushing and styling your hair is something that most women do every single day and yet the artist made this moment beautiful.  Many of the other paintings in the room portrayed stunning landscapes or grand cityscapes and yet I found this private moment to be just as stunning.  This piece really spoke to me because it made me realize that there is something beautiful in each every day moment, whether we can see it or not. 

 

A Museum of True Art Collectors by James Finneral

            The Clark Museum is located in Williamstown, Massachusetts and is one of the most renowned museums in the area. The Clark consists of a collection from Sterling and Francis Clark. The museum does not only display art, but it also serves as a research center. The museum has a vast collection of paintings, sculptures and prints. The pieces in each gallery are arranged in an intentional order.

            In Room 9 of the museum there are paintings on each wall and a couple of small sculptures in the middle. The pieces in the room seem to circle along the topic of history, mainly the life of Jesus Christ. There are paintings of  Christ as a baby being nurtured by his mother, there is one of him being crucified and there are a few of him with his parents and disciples after he has been killed from crucifixion. Although there are paintings of other people, the main point of this room seems to be the celebration of Christ’s life.

            The paining that drew me in the most was The Lamentation by Jan Provoost. The painting shows the scene on a hill right after Christ has been taken off of the cross. Joseph is supporting the dead body of christ. John, an apostle of Christ, is supporting Mary who is hysterically crying. There is another girl on the right of Christ on her knees praying. Behind the scene there is a man inside a little opening of the hill who appears to be preparing a tomb. At the far right side of the painting there is a city which appears to be at the bottom of the hill. They brought Christ from the city up to the hill and crucified him.

            Provoost did a great job making the painting appear very life like. For example in the painting Christ is shirtless and his chest and his stomach both look very realistic. Another impressive detail about this paining is how Provoost shows the emotion of the characters in the painting. Everyone in the painting is crying, but Provoost does not show that by painting tears, but by making the outside of the character’s eyes red showing that they have been crying. I thought this was a very cool way of showing the character’s emotions and would be much more effective than painting in tears.

            As for the museum as a whole I think we can make the inference that Sterling and Francis appreciated all types of art work. From the beautiful landscape paintings, to the sculptures and to the paintings about historical events, it is obvious that the Clarks enjoyed a wide variety of work. The work in the Clark Museum is extremely impressive and if you are close by Western Massachusetts you should definitely stop by. If you are extremely religious I would certainly recommend going to Room 9 and taking a look at some of the pieces at the different times in Christ’s life.   

                

Come See Jesus by Coby Goodrich

Come See Jesus 

Deep in the mountains just outside the distant land of Vermont, a small town offers a wealth of artistic talent and (somewhat creepy) character. On a rainy March 16^th day, the drowsy Critic Crew arrived on sight in Williamstown at the Clark Museum. Morale remained high, but the hot tub had definitely taken its toll on the energy of the crew. A lovely lady of a tour guide led us on a brief tour of the museum, and then we were released to explore. The Clark Museum is the collection of Sterling and Francine Clark, who spent the wealth of their family collecting paintings and other works of art. 

The majority of the paintings in the museum were still life and nature scenes, but one small gallery held a collection of religious paintings. One of these paintings was called “Virgin and Child with John the Baptist” by Sandro Botticelli and Studio. The painting was done in a gold circular frame, which relates to the time period in which it was painted. The circular frame also compliments the smooth edges and faces of the characters in the painting. The characters pictured are the Virgin Mary, young John Baptist, and baby Jesus. The painting was done with oil paints and a vast stretch of green hills and a river in the background. The Virgin Mary is standing and holding her baby, while young John the Baptist prays by her side. Her face shows a calm and tender emotion as she gazes at her baby, who is clinging to her hair. Almost attached to each of the heads of each person are circular discs. It is unclear what the discs are supposed to be, however they look like halos and give the painting a more sacred feel because of it. The sun also appears to be rising because the light is a pale yellow, and the sky is a lighter blue than black, meaning the sun is coming up. 

I would recommend seeing this painting to any religious person interested in art, as it is also part of a gallery containing religious artwork and could be more interesting to a religious viewer. The museum as a whole is very complete and full of good artwork and presentation. It should be visited by anyone looking to view good artwork. 

Dark and Light by Anna Duffy

            It’s not just two horses fighting; it’s more than that. I recently attended the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute or “The Clark”, an art museum located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The piece I found most interesting there is a French painting, done by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). This painting is titled, “Two Horses Fighting in a Stormy Landscape” and was created in 1828. This name is very accurate, as the painting is literally two horses, a grey and a bay, fighting with each other in a stormy setting. However, you can see by reading the description and looking at it closer, it is more than just the obvious.

            Eugène Delacroix uses nature in “Two Horses Fighting in a Stormy Landscape” to beautifully show something that has always been relevant in society. Delacroix, along with many other famous early nineteenth-century European artists, would sometimes use animals in their work to suggest basic aspects of human nature. In this particular piece, the artist used horse combat to symbolize human hostility between good and evil. You can see this when looking at the colors of the two horses; one is light while the other is dark. The light colored one, the grey, represents the force of good, as it is a brighter and a happier color. The dark colored one, the bay, represents the force of evil, as it is a dimmer and a sadder color. Good and evil human beings do not get along most of the time, which is something that has always been pertinent in humanity, and exactly what Eugène Delacroix was trying to depict in “Two Horses Fighting in a Stormy Landscape”.

            Eugène Delacroix uses animals in “Two Horses Fighting in a Stormy Landscape” to stunningly display something that has constantly been significant in civilization. He uses horses and their colors to show how people that are good and people that are evil do not get along, which is something that has continuously been relevant. I definitely recommend checking out this painting, as it could be relatable to you and is also a gorgeous painting to look at.

           

The Piano I Am Saving My Money For by Theresa Rauh

When the elaborate case of this Steinway piano was displayed in London in 1885, the press called it “splendid”, “remarkable” and “superb”. The piano I am talking about is not a normal piano, which I have to admit is also already really pretty, but no, this piano is more a piece of art than anything else and it seems to be too special to actually play on it. Art and music are connected in one piece. The space around the piano seems to be captivated by its beauty. It has lavish materials and decorative flourishes. On the sides there are fine, difficult carvings, covered with different colors of wood. On the front of the piano, above the keyboards, there is a beautiful image of a roman scene, woman and men standing in a temple, and even the names of Apollo and the Muses are inlaid on the lid. On the top of it there are five circles, with Greek letters, describing five arts theatre, painting, architecture, dance and carving. This is another thing I really like it brings everything together in some way. All these arts are so different, but it shows, that they are connected and similar in some way, it seems to carry a message of everything belonging together somehow, maybe this message goes even beyond arts… ? The piano’s story is pretty long, so many people before us saw it’s beauty and could enjoy it’s probably incredible sound (if it sounds like it looks like…), it was placed in many different places until it finally came to the museum. At one time it was used in Broadway shows, at another it stood in the lobby and people were not only using it as an instrument and piece, they were sitting, leaning and drinking on it… I would have loved to hear the sound of it, the sound of the beautiful, old wooden mallets hitting the strings of this piece of art.  I would have loved to see the keyboards moving. But for that unfortunately I will probably have to wait until I am invited to play, or until I become incredibly rich and can make the museum agree on selling it to me…

But as long as I haven’t reached these goals I will definitely keep the memory of this astonishing piece of art.

Typical Art Museum by Ebie Quinn

My experience with the Clark Museum was pretty so-so. It is located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It became open to the public in 1955.  As a museum, it was fine, it had many fascinating and pretty pieces of art, but as a viewer I wasn’t as engaged as I wished to be. This might be as a result of visiting more modern museums, because in contrast this museum kind of fell flat. I’m not trying to dissuade you from seeing it, in fact quite the opposite. I think you should go see it for yourself, form your own opinion, prove me wrong! It has many great pieces of art and I’m sure there are many people who would appreciate it, and I certainly appreciated parts of it. Overall though, it felt kind of bland.

            The Clark Museum has a pretty extensive history which is a featured and discussed at length in the museum. I found the history to actually be quite interesting. The museum was founded by Sterling Clark. Clark went on an expedition to China in 1908, was introduced to the world of collecting art in Paris in 1910, and married Francine Clary in 1919. Sterling and Francine began collecting lots of American and European art, including prints and drawings, sculpture, decorative arts, and paintings. Most of the artwork they collected is French, and there is a lot of impressionist paintings.

            I was assigned to look at a room filled with all glassware. The glassware didn’t particularly appeal to me, I looked it over but to me it seemed to belong in a kitchen not a museum. There were two paintings tucked away on the sides of the rooms and I did enjoy those. The painting I liked the best was called “The Suitor”. It depicted a women in a beautiful flowing white dress standing at her door. The room she is in is very fancy and nice. It has a decorated table with beautiful white flowers sitting on top of it. Behind the flowers and table, there is a long mirror and the reflections rather blurry, but there are many colors, the most prominent being yellow. The wall is decorated with some sort of design and overall the room feels very classy and expensive. The door the women is looking at is cracked open and it is very blurry but you can see a man on his knees, kissing the women's hand. The whole picture is blurred and it gives off a sort of dreamy feeling. The man is the most blurred, and at first glance, he is not even visible. There is no description of the painting, just the title, “The Suitor”. The artist is Gaston de Latouche, and the painting is oil on panel. I really like this picture because it feels so simple and dream-like. It captured my attention for a while, and was just generally fun to look at.

            So, yes, overall the museum was pretty run of the mill for me, but there were certainly many wonderful pieces of art to view and appreciate. Give it a chance, especially if you are into art or museums in general.