BRATTLEBORO — Amherst College professor Carol Clark will discuss the works that have defined American “Western” art in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on April 3.
Her talk, “What's Western about Western American Art?” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series and takes place at 7 p.m.
Clark will consider the works of painters such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Hopper, George Catlin, and Albert Bierstadt to probe undercurrents of racial mixing, psychological displacement, and violent encounters that have come to define the American West as place and idea.
Clark is William McCall Vickery 1957 Professor of the History of Art and American Studies at Amherst College, and chair of art and the history of art department. She holds a B.A. in history and an M.A. in the history of art from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in the history of art from Case Western Reserve University. Her courses address art of the United States, with a focus on the 19th century, and on public art.
The Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May, featuring speakers of national and regional renown. Talks in Brattleboro are held at Brooks Memorial Library unless otherwise noted. All First Wednesdays talks are free and open to the public.
The 2012-2013 First Wednesdays series in Brattleboro concludes with “Frost and Wordsworth: Romantic Poetry in the Light of Common Day” with Vermont Poet Laureate Sydney Lea on May 1.