Finding aid for the Anthony M. Clark papers 2023.M.59
Sarah Lerner
Special Collections
2024
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
Contributing Institution: Special Collections
Title: Anthony M. Clark papers
Creator: Clark, Anthony M.
Identifier/Call Number: 2023.M.59
Physical Description: 10.52 Linear Feet(19 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1929-1976
Date (bulk): bulk 1949-1976
Abstract: Collection of notebooks and diaries, artworks, and printed material by or belonging to the late art historian and museum professional
Anthony M. Clark.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is in English with some Italian.
Conditions Governing Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Estate of Anthony Morris Clark, 2023.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in 3 series:
Series I. Notebooks and diaries, 1941-1976; Series II. Artworks, 1929-1972; Series III. Printed material, 1939-1971.
Biographical Note
Anthony M. Clark (1923-1976) was an art historian, artist, collector, and museum professional. His chief interest was eighteenth-century
Rome.
Clark was born October 12, 1923, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard University in 1945 with a degree
in fine arts. From 1945 to 1949, he worked as a painter in New York City.
In 1950, Clark lectured on contemporary New York painting as part of a Harvard-run seminar in Salzburg, Austria. He then traveled
throughout Europe, eventually working with the Byzantine Institute in Istanbul, excavating, cleaning, and restoring frescoes
of Kariye Mosque (also known as Chora Church) and the inlaid floor of Zeyrek Mosque (the Monastery of the Pantokrator) in
1954.
In 1955, Clark became the first secretary to the museum of the Rhode Island School of Design under Director John Maxon. He
served there in this capacity and as director of publications until 1959. From 1959 to 1961, Clark was one of the first two
David E. Finley Fellows at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. He spent the fellowship in Rome, Italy.
Clark was appointed curator of paintings and sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1961 and became director in
1963. In 1973, he became curator of European painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art under Director Thomas Hoving. He resigned
from the museum in protest in 1975 citing issues with museum administration. His resignation followed that of curator John
Walsh, Jr.
From 1975 to 1976, Clark was a professor at both New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and Williams College in Williamstown,
Massachusetts. At the time of his death on November 22, 1976, he was a resident at the American Academy in Rome (AAR), working
on a survey of Roman baroque painting supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Clark amassed a significant collection of eighteenth-century Roman paintings, as well as drawings, pottery, coins, and objects.
A portion of his eighteenth-century paintings collection was sold to support the posthumous publication of his books-in-progress
(including
Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings [1985]) and to help establish a fellowship in Renaissance and early modern studies (now known as the AAR's Anthony M. Clark
Rome Prize).
Clark's will dictated that certain works be donated to a suitable museum and so its executors bequeathed to the Philadelphia
Museum of Art 378 old master drawings, 204 prints, 114 coins, medals, and plaquettes, 24 sculptures, and 13 miscellaneous
objects from his estate, all indicative of his interest in Roman life.
Sources consulted:
Crockett, Emily and Lee Sorensen. "Clark, Anthony M." Dictionary of Art Historians. https://arthistorians.info/clarka.
"From the Archives: Anthony M. Clark." American Academy in Rome, October 31, 2023. https://www.aarome.org/news/features/archives-anthony-m-clark.
Russell, John. "Anthony Clark, 52, Museum Director, Head of Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Chairman of Met's European Paintings
Department Dies."
The New York Times, November 24, 1976.
"A Scholar Collects: Selections from the Anthony Morris Clark Bequest." Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981.
Custodial History
John Walsh, Director Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Museum, became the executor of Anthony M. Clark's estate after his passing
in 1976. His papers were in Walsh's possession until they were given to the repository by Clark's estate in 2023.
Preferred Citation
Anthony M. Clark papers, 1929-1976, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2023.M.59.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/archives2023m59
Processing Information
Sarah Lerner processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in 2024.
Related Archival Materials
Additional research materials by or belonging to Anthony M. Clark can be found in:
Anthony M. Clark Archive, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, D.C.
The collection consists of research photographs and prints collected by Clark, as well as his notebooks with entries pertaining
to European artists, personages, churches, palaces, antiquities, collections, dealers, and iconography.
Scope and Content of Collection
Collection of notebooks and diaries, artworks, and printed material by or belonging to the late art historian and museum professional
Anthony M. Clark.
Included are appointment books, diary entries, sketchbooks, and workbooks documenting Clark's work at the Rhode Island School
of Design Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Materials also concern the social
and intellectual history of scholars living and working in Rome, Italy, in the 1950s and 1960s. A portion of Clark's art throughout
his sketchbooks and other bound volumes is homoerotic in nature.
Clark's personal and academic interests in eighteenth-century Rome and the ancient Latin city Alba Longa are documented throughout
the collection as are his poetry and prose.
Publication Rights
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Address books
Appointment books
Diaries
Drawings (visual works)
Paintings
Photographs, Original
Poetry
Sketchbooks
Art historians -- United States
Art museum curators -- United States
Art, Roman -- Study and teaching
Gay erotic art
Art historians -- Archives
Alba Longa (Extinct city)
Rome (Italy) -- Description and travel
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) -- Employees
Minneapolis Institute of Arts -- Employees
Rhode Island School of Design. Museum of Art -- Employees
Notebooks and diaries, Series I.
1941-1976
Physical Description: 5.94 Linear Feet(14 boxes)
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by format and chronologically thereafter. Miscellaneous material is filed at the end of the series.
Processing Information
Text in quotation marks transcribed from titles assigned by Anthony M. Clark as seen on the title pages of his bound volumes.
Scope and Contents
Series I. consists of Anthony M. Clark's address books, appointment books, diaries, notebooks, poetry books, and workbooks.
Materials are both personal and professional in nature and record Clark's life at a near-daily level. Among the matters documented
are his continual academic pursuits in Rome; his time working at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum (1955-1959), the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts (1961-1973), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1973-1975); and his perceived repeated struggles
while navigating professional, personal, and romantic relationships with his male peers.
There is a significant amount of Clark's unpublished poetry and prose—the latter chiefly present in volumes titled "Nuts I-V."
Clark's illustrations are present throughout the bound volumes as are clipped images that he adhered to volume pages.
box 1, folder 1-3
Address books,
1960s, undated
Appointment books,
1959-1975
box 7, folder 1-11
1973 November-1974 December
box 9, folder 1
"Alba Longa Notes I,"
1969-1972
box 9, folder 2
"Alba Longa Notes II,"
1969-1972
box 9, folder 3
"Alba Longa Notes III,"
1969-1972
box 9, folder 6
"Nuts III,"
1970 February-April
box 9, folder 7
"Nuts IV,"
1970 April-June
box 9, folder 8
"Nuts V,"
1970 June-August
box 10, folder 1
"Bread of Faithful Speech,"
1951-1960
box 10, folder 2
"Pegasus as Packass: Observations & False Scents,"
1958-1959
box 10, folder 3
"Everybody's Pushing but Nothings Moving, Said the Donkey to the Barn Door,"
1960-1961
box 10, folder 4
"The Grammar of Great Being (&) Great Rest,"
1962-1968
box 10, folder 5
"The Numinous at Short Notice,"
1963
box 10, folder 7
"A NANI, Poems by Nanipor,"
1968-1969
box 10, folder 8
"The S. Felice Bas. Menhir, An Alban Hut Urn, and Notes for the Return of the Age of Saturn,"
1969
box 11, folder 1
"The Castle of Dianus,"
1969-1970
box 11, folder 2
"Picus Clap Trap,"
1970-1971
box 11, folder 4-5
Typescript ("The Chuang Tzu Text"),
1949 June
Scope and Contents
Typescript translation by Clark of the
Tao Te Ching, a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism.
Originally submitted to American poet, translator, essayist, and social critic Kenneth Rexroch (1905-1982), whose autograph
response accompanies the text.
box 12, folder 3
"Workbook III,"
1973-1974
box 14, folder 1-3
Miscellaneous notes, poetry, and prose,
1941-1949
Artworks, Series II.
1929-1972
Physical Description: 4.36 Linear Feet(4 boxes)
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by transcribed title and by format thereafter. Photographs of Clark's works are filed at the end of
the series.
Processing Information
Text in quotation marks transcribed from titles assigned by Anthony M. Clark as seen on his portfolio folders.
Scope and Contents
Series II. consists of loose papers, sketchbooks, and two unstretched canvases by Anthony M. Clark depicting portraits (both
of himself and of others), landscapes, Rome, and classical scenes, among other subjects. The earliest work (dated Thanksgiving
1929) is of the
Mayflower. Clark's later art is in large part homoerotic and includes nudes and caricatures.
Techniques used include charcoal, oil pastel, lino print, pen and ink, pencil, and watercolor.
Present are photographs of Clark's larger, framed works in oil or gouache not with the collection.
box 15, folder 1
"Designs for paintings,"
1950
box 15, folder 2-6, box 16, folder 1
"Misc. drawings,"
1929-1952
box 15, folder 16-19, box 17*, folder 3
box 15, folder 20
Self-portrait,
approximately 1950
box 15, folder 21-22
Sketchbooks (Rome),
1969-1972
box 15, folder 23, box 18
box 15, folder 24-26
Photographs of paintings,
1940s-1950s
Printed material, Series III.
1939-1971
Physical Description: 0.22 Linear Feet(1 box)
Arrangement
Material relating to exhibitions filed first with publications following in alphabetical order by publication title.
Scope and Contents
Series III. consists of printed material relating to or collected by Anthony M. Clark. Included are two exhibition announcements,
one exhibition catalog, and four publications.
Salient No. III possibly includes a poem by Clark (identified as "Anthony"); No. IV includes linoleum cuts by Clark (identified as
Tony Clark). Allen Johnson, Cornelius Lansing, Herbert MacArthur, and Lauro Venturi are listed as journal editors.
box 19, folder 1
Exhibition announcements,
1947-1954
box 19, folder 2
Exhibition catalog,
1954 January
Scope and Contents
Exhibition catalog for
Four Young Americans: Brady, Clark, Gibran, Weitzner held at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art January 3-31, 1954.
box 19, folder 3
The Art Gallery Magazine,
1971 May
box 19, folder 4
"The Minneapolis Institute of Arts" by The Arts Opportunity Program,
1971
box 19, folder 7
Excerpt from
U.S. Camera,
1939 August
