Ground/work ed by Molly Epstein and Abigail Ross Goodman 2021

Let’s address the potential ‘conflict of interest’ right up front.  One of the curators of this spectacular outdoor sculpture exhibition and an essayist in the catalogue is my younger daughter, but putting that aside, this catalog is a work of art in itself.

Ground/work was the Clark’s first outdoor sculpture exhibition and opened despite incredible logistical challenges during the first year of the COVID pandemic.  It provided visitors with a rare opportunity to interact with objects of provocative beauty at at time when museums were on lockdown.

The Clark Art Institute located in Williamstown, Massachusetts has long been known for its permanent collection of works by the Impressionists, Winslow Homer, and others, but it has only just begun to engage with contemporary art, perhaps spurred by its wonderful Tado Ando building added to the classical Institute in 2014.   As part of that new embrace of  the contemporary, the Clark engaged two independent curators, Epstein and Goodman to find artists and their work that would encounter and enrich the 400 acres of rolling hills, woods, and pasture adjoining the Clark’s buildings.

The result was the Ground/work exhibit featuring six women artists from the U.S. and Korea and their site specific works on Stone Hill and in the surrounding woods.  Jennie C. Jones created a monumental Aeolian Harp affixed to one of Ando’s marble walls, titling it “These (Mournful) Shores”.  Analia Saban replaced an existing split rail fence with a new one providing the nearby grazing animals with “Teaching a Cow to Draw”.  Haegue Yang using computer etched granite and acrylic created “Migratory DMZ Birds on ASymmetric Lens” with three separate pieces placed around the property.  Eva LeWitt placed her three “Resin Towers” on the edge of Stone Hill. Nairy  Baghramian’s “Knee and Elbow” sits on the open meadow near the top of Stone Hill, and Kelly Akashi’s “A Device to See the World Twice” frames a fallen ash tree in the woods.

Each of these works as well as their creators are discussed by distinguished essayists, and the essays are accompanied by beautiful photographs taken of the works in all four seasons.  The book itself is a work of art with its thick white covers, color photographs, and its creative treatment of the pages in which three sides of the pages in the closed book reflect a photograph of the Clark’s rural setting.  The moving indentation at the top of the book’s pages is an innovative and interesting way of separating the various chapters.

All in all, this catalog is a fitting accompaniment to what was a spectacular exhibition.  With rave reviews in the Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe among others, the only downside to this exhibition and its wonderful catalog is that all of the works except for the fence, have now moved on to other venues.  Time flies but art is eternal may be a truism, but not eternal at The Clark at any rate.

If you missed this show, you can experience much of its impact in this beautifully wrought catalog.