RAP/CLARK CONFERENCE FILM SERIES: THE L.A. REBELLION—TO SLEEP WITH ANGER

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 6 PM
AUDITORIUM

In celebration and anticipation of the Clark’s Research and Academic Program (RAP) 2023 Conference, “The Fetish A(r)t Work: African Objects in the Making of European Art History, 1500–1900,” the Clark presents a series of films from the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers, better known as the L.A. Rebellion film movement.

To Sleep with Anger is a slow-burning masterwork of the early 1990s and a singular piece of American mythmaking. In a towering performance, Danny Glover plays the enigmatic southern drifter Harry, a devilish charmer who turns up out of the blue on the South Central Los Angeles doorstep of his old friends. A sublimely stirring film from an autonomous artistic sensibility, To Sleep with Anger is a portrait of family resilience steeped in the traditions of African American mysticism and folklore.

Free. More information. Accessible seating available; call 413 458 0524.

To Sleep with Anger will take the place of the previously scheduled Killer of Sheep.

WRITING CLOSER: ART AND THE SENSES

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 10:30 AM
MANTON STUDY CENTER FOR WORKS ON PAPER

The Manton Study Center for Works on Paper welcomes writers of all experience and skill levels to work closely after thematic selections from the Clark’s collection of works on paper!

September’s theme, “Art and the Senses,” features prints, drawings, and photographs evoking sensations of touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. Whether it’s poetry or prose, fiction or non-, and a story-in-progress or something completely new, allow the works to inspire your writing.

Free. More information. Advance registration required; capacity is limited.

TWO “ARTWORK ESSAYS,” OR THE FATE OF RAPHAEL’S SISTINE MADONNA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 5:30 PM   
AUDITORIUM

In this Research and Academic Program lecture, Clark Fellow Brigid Doherty (Princeton University) considers the significance of Raphael’s The Sistine Madonna in and around two epochal essays of the twentieth century: Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility” (1935–39) and Martin Heidegger’s “The Origin of the Work of Art” (1935–36).

Raphael’s masterpiece has figured prominently in German-language art history, literature, and philosophy since the publication of Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s On the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1755). These two appraisals of the painting have broad implications for our understanding of its place in the culture of European modernity and, perhaps, for how we approach the history of art now.

Free. More information. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524.

RAP/CLARK CONFERENCE FILM SERIES: THE L.A. REBELLION—BLESS THEIR LITTLE HEARTS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 6 PM
AUDITORIUM

Continuing the series of films from the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers, better known as the L.A. Rebellion film movement, the Clark screens Bless Their Little Hearts.

Bless Their Little Hearts represents the closure and pinnacle of a neorealist strand within  the L.A. Rebellion. Billy Woodberry’s film chronicles the devastating effects of underemployment on a Los Angeles family. Nate Hardman and Kaycee Moore deliver gut-wrenching performances as the couple whose family is torn apart by events beyond their control. If salvation remains, it’s in the sensitive depiction of everyday life, which persists throughout.

Free. More information. Accessible seating available; call 413 458 0524.

BLACKBOX ENSEMBLE: THE SOUND OF SPACE BETWEEN US

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 4 PM
FERNÁNDEZ TERRACE

The Sound of Space Between Us is a site-specific performance connecting sound and movement through physical space. Conceived and curated by Annie Nikunen (flutist of BlackBox Ensemble, composer, dancer, and choreographer) and Leonard Bopp (Artistic Director of BlackBox Ensemble), the Clark’s grounds are used as a meeting place for music and dance to converse about our public place in the ecosystem and our private paths with(in) it.

Nikunen and Bopp maintain strong connections to the regional area. Bopp grew up in Albany and attended Williams College, and both Bopp and Nikunen studied at the Tanglewood Music Center (Lenox, Massachusetts) this past summer—Nikunen as a composition fellow and Bopp in the Conducting Seminar.

Free. More information. Accessible seating available; call 413 458 0524.