The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute has expanded with the help of Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The Stone Hill Center sits on a wooded hillside on the Clark campus and houses intimate galleries, a classroom and the Williamstown Art Conservation Center. The sleek architecture, set against a wooded backdrop, is intended to emphasize the Clark's standing as one of the only major art museums in a rural setting. The galleries highlight the Clark's vast permanent collection and house works not typically shown at the museum.
The Stone Hill Center Inaugural Exhibition features work by two Clark heavyweights: Winslow Homer (whose work is pictured) and John Singer Sargent. The 19th-century American painters are similar, but perhaps only in the way their bold styles have a dramatic effect on the viewer: Homer approached his subject matter from a distance and, often, in action, while Sargent focused on stillness and portraiture, with subjects ranging from the likes of Theodore Roosevelt to the anonymous veiled woman in his famous work "Fum?e d'Ambre Gris." Seven of Homer's works and five of Sargent's from the Clark permanent collection are on display in the new gallery at Stone Hill.
June 22-October 19, Stone Hill Center, The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, (413) 458-2303, www.clarkart.edu.
