The Clark, the art and research institute in Williamstown MA, has just received the largest gift since the gallery was founded in 1955: no fewer than 331 European artworks from the collection of the late Aso Tavitian, many of them masterpieces, from the Renaissance through to the French Rococo and beyond - van Eyck, van Dyck, Rubens, Pontormo, Bernini, Parmigianino, Vigée le Brun, Fragonard, Watteau and many more - plus $45 million to build a new space to house them. Design has already begun, led by architect Annabelle Seldorf; it is projected to open to the public in 2027.
Join Charlotte Wilson for a trip out to The Clark to visit Director Olivier Meslay. Past curator of British, American, and Spanish art at the Louvre in Paris - it was he who oversaw the opening of both the Louvre-Atlanta and Louvre-Lens - then Director of the Dallas Art Museum before joining The Clark in 2012 - he talks about the background, the content, and the transformative power of this astonishing gift on a stroll around the galleries, one beautiful autumn day.
Visit https://www.clarkart.edu/ for current exhibitions
Photos:
1: Self-portrait, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in the new Tavitian Foundation collection
2-5: Fragonard, Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Piero della Francesca discussed in The Clark’s existing collection
6-7: Manton Research Centre, The Clark
8-31: Images from the new Tavitian Foundation collection.
Duquesnoy terracotta bust of Poussin; Pontormo; van Eyck Madonna; Bronzino; Bosschaert; Carpeaux; Bernini portrait; Pissarro; Bernini sculpture; Greuze; David; Fragonard; Hobbema; Gros;Kauffmann; de Ribera; Parigianino; Vernet; Susini; Rubens; unknown Dital harp; van Dyck; Vaillant
32-34: Images from the visit. Olivier Meslay & Charlotte Wilson in front of Fragonard
35: from the new Tavitian Foundation collection: Watteau, L’Orgueilleux, The Proud Man
