Timothy James "T. J." Clark (born 12 April 1943) is a British

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and writer. He taught art history in a number of universities in England and the United States, including

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Clark has been influential in developing the field of art history, examining modern paintings as an articulation of the social and political conditions of modern life. His orientation is distinctly leftist, and he has often referred to himself as a Marxist.

Life and work

Clark attended

Bristol Grammar School Bristol Grammar School (BGS) is a 4–18 mixed, independent day school in Bristol, England. It was founded in 1532 by Royal Charter for the teaching of 'good manners and literature', endowed by wealthy Bristol merchants Robert and Nicholas Thorn ...

. He completed his undergraduate studies at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, he obtained a first-class honours degree in 1964. He received his PhD in art history from the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

in 1973. He lectured at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...

1967–69 and then at

Camberwell College of Arts Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgra ...

as a senior lecturer, 1970–74. During this time he was also a member of the British Section of the

Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

, from which he was expelled along with the other members of the English section. He was also involved in the group

King Mob King Mob was an English radical group based in London during the late 1960s/early 1970s. It was a cultural mutation of the Situationists and the anarchist group UAW/MF. It sought to emphasise the cultural anarchy and disorder being ignored in B ...

. In 1973 he published two books based on his PhD dissertation: ''The Absolute Bourgeois: Artists and Politics in France, 1848–1851'' and ''Image of the People: Gustave Courbet and the Second French Republic, 1848–1851.'' He taught at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in 1974–76. In 1976, he became a founding member of the Caucus for Marxism and Art of the

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...

. Clark returned to Britain in 1976 when he was appointed professor and head of the Department of Fine Art at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. In 1980 Clark joined the Department of Fine Arts at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, which angered some of the more conservative, connoisseurship-oriented faculty members, especially the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

art historian

Sydney Freedberg Sydney Joseph Freedberg (November 11, 1914 – May 6, 1997) was an American art historian and curator, mainly of Italian Renaissance painting. Freedberg was born in Boston and attended the Boston Latin School. He graduated from Harvard College in ...

, with whom he had a public feud. In 1982 he published an essay, "

Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formal ...

's Theory of Art", critical of prevailing Modernist theory, which prompted a notable and pointed exchange with

Michael Fried Michael Martin Fried (born April 12, 1939 in New York City) is a modernist art critic and art historian. He studied at Princeton University and Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford. He is the J.R. Herbert Boone Pr ...

. This exchange contributed to the debate between formalist and social histories of art. Clark's works have taken art history in a new direction, away from traditional preoccupations with

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

and

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

. His books regard modern paintings as expressions of sociopolitical conditions in modern life. In 1988 he joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, where he held the George C. and Helen N. Pardee Chair as Professor of Modern Art until his retirement. In 1991 Clark was awarded the College Art Association's Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award. Notable students include

Thomas E. Crow Thomas E. Crow (born 1948) is an American art historian and art critic who is best known for his influential writing on the role of art in modern society and culture. Since 2007, Crow has served as the Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at the ...

Michael Kimmelman Michael Kimmelman (born May 8, 1958) is the architecture critic for ''The New York Times'' and has written about public housing, public space, landscape architecture, community development and equity, infrastructure and urban design. He has report ...

, John O'Brian and

Jonathan Weinberg Jonathan Weinberg (born 1957) is an American artist and art historian. He is a critic at the Yale School of Art. Early life Weinberg grew up in New York City and attended the Fieldston School. He studied as an undergraduate at Yale University wi ...

. As a member of

Retort In a chemistry laboratory, a retort is a device used for distillation or dry distillation of substances. It consists of a spherical vessel with a long downward-pointing neck. The liquid to be distilled is placed in the vessel and heated. The n ...

, a Bay Area-based collective of radical intellectuals, he co-authored the book ''Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War'', published by Verso Books in 2005. In 2005 Clark received a Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2006 he received an honorary degree from the

. In 2007, he was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. He and his wife

Anne Wagner Anne Middleton Wagner, often known as Anne Wagner, is an art historian. Class of 1936 Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, she is now based in London, where in 2013–14 she was Visiting Professor at the Courtauld Instit ...

, who also taught art history at Berkeley, retired in 2010 and moved to London. He continues to be active as a guest lecturer, author, and now as a poet. His book ''Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica'' is based on his Mellon Lectures in Fine Art delivered in spring 2009. His most recent book is ''If These Apples Should Fall: Cézanne and the Present'' (2022).

Publications

* ''Image of the People: Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. , trad Fr. :Image du peuple: Gustave Courbet et la révolution de 1848, Les Presses du Réel, 2007. * ''The Absolute Bourgeois: Artists and Politics in France, 1848–1851.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. . trad Fr. :Le Bourgeois Absolu – Les Artistes Et La Politique En France De 1848 À 1851, Art édition, 1992. , (projet) Presses du réel, . * ''The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and his Followers.'' Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985. * Also published at pp. 467–488 of book

Tom McDonough Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

(2004) (Editor) ''Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents''. The

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

(1 April 2004) 514 pages , trad. Fr. :Pourquoi l'art ne peut pas tuer l'internationale situationniste, Egrégores, 2006, * ''Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999. * ''Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War.'' With Iain Boal, Joseph Matthews and Michael Watts. London: Verso, 2005. * ''The Sight of Death: An Experiment in Art Writing.'' Yale University Press, 2006.
''The Painting of Postmodern Life?''
Barcelona: MACBA, 2009. * ''Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2013. * ''Heaven on Earth: Painting and the Life to Come''. London: Thames & Hudson, 2018. * ''If These Apples Should Fall: Cézanne and the Present''. London: Thames & Hudson, 2022.

References

External links

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* Anatoly Rykov">Rykov A. V.br>Absent Look. Edouard Manet and Timothy Clark’s Theory of Modernism. Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Искусствоведение, 10(2), 266-273.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, T. J. 1943 births Living people Academics from Bristol British art historians People educated at Bristol Grammar School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art Academics of the University of Essex Academics of the University of Leeds Harvard University faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Academics of Camberwell College of Arts Situationists