Timothy J Clark (artist)

Early life

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.

Work and career

Noted for his poetic interpretations of urban interiors and exteriors and often blurring the lines between still life, figure and landscape, Clark merges post-modern painting styles. His drawings, oils and watercolor paintings are included in the permanent collections of the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, the El Paso Museum of Art in Texas, the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, LUMA(Loyola University Museum of Art) in Chicago, the Smithsonian/National Portrait Gallery, the Library of Congress Works on Paper, The Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri, and the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts, in addition to numerous private collections. A sketchbook of the artist's drawings of Ground Zero created at the still-smoldering site within days of the attack were acquired for the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Clark has had multiple museum exhibitions of his work, most recently in an exhibition of more than forty paintings, “In the Presence of Sacred Light”, at LUMA (the Loyola University Museum of Art) in Chicago May – August 2015. From November 2012 through February 2013 at the Laguna Art Museum in California. Organized by museum curator Janet Blake, the exhibition, "Timothy J. Clark", highlighted over 30 of Clark's mature watercolors. From November 2010 through January 2011 the Nevada Museum of Art mounted an exhibition of Clark's work, "Expressive Luminescence" curated by art historian Jean Cooper. In January and February 2009 Clark had a solo exhibition at Hammer galleries in New York City which was reviewed in the March 2009 issue of Art Times.

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. More than forty drawings, oils and watercolors created over four decades were shown in Pasadena from January 20 – April 13, traveled to the Butler Institute of American Art from June 19 – August 3, and moved to the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts August 27 – October 19.

Clark’s commissioned oil portraits include those of Sir Eldon Griffith, M.P.; Chief Judge Sandra L. Lynch, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit; and Dr. Leslie Purdy, President, Coastline College. His watercolor portrait of Will Barnet is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

A book,Timothy J. Clark, was published by Pomegranate Communications in Petaluma, California in January 2008. With a biographical essay by Mr. Jean Stern, director of California's Irvine Museum, and a critical essay by art historian and author Dr. Lisa E. Farrington, the book also served as a catalog for Clark's retrospective. The artists work was also profiled in the July/August 2008 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur.

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

Clark's awards include the William A. Paton Award at the National Academy's 175th Exhibition, the President's Award in 2003 and in 2012 and the Salzman Award in 2004 in the National Arts Club's annual exhibiting members show, and the Watercolor Award in the Allied Artists annual exhibition in 2005, all in New York City.

Paintings by Clark have been exhibited in international exhibitions at the Allied Museum in Berlin, Germany, the Danubiana Museum in Bratislava, Slovakia, the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, Turkey and in a solo exhibition at the Rosenfeld Gallery in Juarez, Mexico.

Clark maintains studios in Southern California and Maine.

Artist Educator

Clark has taught and lectured at institutions including The University of Hawaii, the Art Students League, the National Academy, and Yale University’s Graduate Continuity and Change Program in Rome. From 2003 – 2013 he served on the Alumni Board for the California Institute of the Arts (CalARTS). In January 2017, Clark was appointed Interim Executive Director of the Art Students League of New York.

Personal life

The artist has three daughters. In 1991 he married Marriott Small Kohl, an executive in book publishing prior to partnering with Clark. Her image is often seen in Clark's interiors. Her inspiration and organizational skills have supported the focus and refinement in Clark's vision and direction.