Timothy J. Clark (artist)

He was born and raised in Santa Ana, California and attended Otis Art Institute and then the Art Center School of Design where he worked with Harry Carmean in 1969. He graduated from the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles (CFA '72) and the California Institute of the Arts (BA 1975) where he worked with Harold Kramer, Emerson Woelffer, and Donald W. Graham. Clark received his master's degree from California State University, Long Beach in 1978 where he worked with Joyce Tremain.[1][2][3][4]

Clark merges the atmosphere of the landscape with still life and interiors in monumental watercolor paintings.[1] Most recently, he has returned to his lifelong love of Hispanic culture in a new series of extremely large yet intimate watercolor paintings created in most of Spain’s autonomous regions and across the Americas. These works celebrate a rich Hispanic visual heritage through the vigorous and highly personal artistic responses that are the trademarks of his work.[5][6] Other Clark subjects of note are his iconic Bicycles, Lemons, and Urban Landscapes.[7]

“Timothy J. Clark: Masterworks on Paper” at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum in Arkansas (2018 – ’19)[5] is the most recent of Clark’s many solo museum exhibitions. Other major museum exhibitions include “In the Presence of Sacred Light” at LUMA (the Loyola University Museum of Art) in Chicago in 2015[8][9][10][11]

“Timothy J. Clark” at the Laguna Art Museum in California in 2012 – 2013;[12][13][14] and “Expressive Luminescence” at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno 2010 – 2011[15] In January and February 2009 Clark had a solo exhibition of his watercolor paintings at the Hammer Galleries in New York City.[16]

In 2008, a mid-career retrospective exhibition of Clark’s work was organized by the Pasadena Museum of California Art and guest-curated by Mr. Jean Stern.[1][17][3] More than forty drawings, oils and watercolors created over four decades were shown at the Pasadena museum from January - April, at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio from June - August,[18][19] and the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts August - October.[20]

A book, “Timothy J. Clark”, was published by Pomegranate Communications in 2008.[1] With a biographical essay by Mr. Jean Stern, formerly Director of the Irvine Museum in Southern California, and a critical essay by art historian and author, Dr. Lisa E. Farrington, the book also served as a catalog for Clark’s retrospective.[1]

Clark’s commissioned oil portraits include those of Sr Eldon Griffith, M.P.; Chief Judge Sandra L. Lynch, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Moakley Federal Courthouse, Boston, MA;[21] and Dr. Leslie Purdy, President, Coastline College, Fountain Valley, CA. His watercolor portrait of artist Will Barnet is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.[1][22]

Paintings by Clark have been exhibited in international exhibitions at the Allied Museum in Berlin, Germany and the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul,[23][24] and in a solo exhibition at the Rosenfeld Gallery in Juarez, Mexico.

Clark’s work is represented by Lois Wagner Fine Art in New York City and Harmon Meek Galleries in Naples, Florida.

Clark’s paintings, drawings and portraits are in the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York; Smithsonian/National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.; (LUMA) Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago; University of California, Irvine; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; Library of Congress, Works on Paper, Washington, D.C.; Laguna Art Museum, California; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Boston Federal Courthouse; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; El Paso Museum of Art, Texas; Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, Arkansas; Hilbert Museum of California Art, Chapman University; and the Springfield Art Museum, Missouri, among others.

In 1987, Clark wrote the book Focus on Watercolor in cooperation with the Metropolitan and Whitney Museums in New York.[25] The book served as a companion to the thirteen-part PBS series of the same name released in 1989 for which Clark served as writer and on-air host. The series aired on PBS stations throughout North America and Clark received an Emmy nomination for his work.[26][27]

Clark has taught and lectured at institutions including Yale University’s Graduate Continuity and Change Program in Rome, the National Academy, the Art Students League of New York, and The University of Hawaii at Hilo. From 2003 – 2013, he served on the Alumni Board for the California Institute of the Arts (CalARTS).

In January 2017, Clark accepted a five-month appointment as Interim Executive Director at the Art Students League of New York.[28][29][30] While there, he established new programming in animation with Mark Osborne, a fashion program with Bil Donovan, and hosted panel discussions with Wayne Thiebaud and Philip Pearlstein. His panel with Dr. Michael White dealt with the crossover in composition between painter and musician.

In 1991, Clark married Marriott Small, an executive in book publishing. Her image is often seen in Clark’s interiors. Her organizational skills and inspiration have supported a refinement in his vision. The couple maintain homes in Southern California, Maine, and New York City.

“In Living Color: Timothy J. Clark’s Poetic Realism”, by Leo J. Donovan[31]

“Sacred Light: The Art of Timothy J. Clark” by Kelly Compton, Fine Art Connoisseur, May/June 2015 issue[32]

“Timothy J. Clark,” by Janet Blake, Curator, Laguna Art Museum exhibition brochure, 2012

“Timothy J. Clark: A Retrospective at the Butler Museum of American Art,” Artdaily.org – the First Art Newspaper on the Net, June 19, 2008[33]“

“Timothy J. Clark,” by Stern, Farrington; Published by Pomegranate Communications, Petaluma, California, January 2008[34]

“Luminaries at the League, Now All Over Town,” by Holland Cotter, New York Times, September 9, 2005[35]

“His Art and Soul,” by Brad Bonhall, Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2000[36]

• Art Students league of New York
• National Academy of Design
• National Arts Club
• Butler Institute of American Art
• Chouinard Art Institute

http://www.theartstudentsleague.org/bio_timothy.html
http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/7aa/7aa966.htm
http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?searchtype=BIO&artist=134304

• Artist's Website
• Butler Institute of Art
• Smithsonian
• His Art and Soul, LA Times
• Pasadena Museum of California Art, LA Times
• Art Knowledge News,Butler Institute Retrospective
• Art Times March 2009