Faculty Research Lecture is April 10
Art historian to speak on modern art and the world

Timothy Clark

03 April 2002 | The Internet has transformed the way we communicate and do business, but has its impact been significant enough to launch us into a postmodern world?

It may be too soon to tell, but the first place to look for a sign would be in the works of the modern artist, says art historian Timothy Clark. The Berkeley professor plans to examine the relationship of modern art to the social reconstruction of modernity on Wednesday, April 10, in the second of this year’s Faculty Research Lectures.

“A new form of urbanism arrived that was associated with the reconstruction of the city,” says Clark. “This urbanism marginalized the working classes and turned the city from a place of work to a place of consumption and recreation.” Beginning with Manet, modern artists have used their work as a way of responding to and reflecting on these changes.

Clark will examine modern art’s relationship to the concept of visibility in culture through works by Manet, Picasso and contemporary artist Tony Oursler, whose recent installation deals with ghosts in conflict with the Internet.

Widely praised for his masterful blending of social-historical context and scholarly attention to detail, Clark has for more than three decades established himself as one of modernism’s most passionate critics. The journal Modernism/Modernity called his most recent work, “Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism,” “clearly the best book ever written on modernism.”

Clark joined the Berkeley faculty in 1987 and is the George C. and Helen N. Pardee Chair and Professor of Art History. Clark’s lecture, “The Painting of Postmodern Life,” will take place at 5 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

The Faculty Research Lecture series was established in 1912 to give faculty a chance to share their research with the campus. Each year, the Academic Senate elects two distinguished faculty members to deliver the lectures. Robert Tjian delivered the first of this year’s lectures on April 3