At the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA thru May 30
Art about war. Weirdly coincidentally, the Clark Art Institute in the Berkshires was in the process of putting together an exhibit on that very subject when, boom, Russia invaded Ukraine. And so it is that the show, “As They Saw It: Artists Witnessing War,” on view, appropriately, through Memorial Day, packs an extra emotional punch. It’s an exhibit of prints, drawings, and photographs of conflicts going back four centuries, all of them from the Clark’s permanent collection, works by such heavy hitters as Degas, Manet, and Goya, and many less familiar names whose work is no less powerful. I saw it a week ago and certain images still stick in my mind. We visit with curator Anne Leonard.
A selection of images from the show:
Top row: Pierre-Georges Jeanniot, The Survivors of a Massacre Used as Gravediggers (1915); Auguste Raffet, Military Uniform Study, Artillery (1837)
2nd row: After Winslow Homer, The War for the Union, 1862, A Cavalry Charge; Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet, A French Soldier of the Ancien Regime, 1842
3rd row: Hieronymus Hopfer, After Raphael, Combat of Cavaliers and Foot Soldiers, 1520-50; top right: Theophile Alexandre Steinlen, East Wind, 1916; bottom right: Goya, Que valor! (What valor!) from The Disasters of War, 1810-20
4th row: Goya, Yo Lo Vie (I Saw It) from The Disasters of War, 1810-20; Unknown, Portrait of a Civil War Veteran Wearing a Grand Army of the Republic Medal, 1866-70
Goya’s complete The Disasters of War portfolio and other images from the exhibition can be found here.
Open Studio 