Will Clark Verse to Vision: An Outsider’s Anthology
Curated by Sam Sebren
July 15 - August 13, 2022

Hudson House is pleased to present Verse to Vision: An Outsider’s Anthology a show of paintings by Will Clark. John William Clark (1916 – 2012) was a self-taught painter who never touched a paintbrush until the age of 85 and then created an explosively prolific body of work until his death at the age of 96. He was born into the Clark family in 1916 in Manhattan, he was an heir to fortunes from the family’s prominent Clark Thread Company. Ivy League educated and well-traveled, including serving in the U.S. Air Force during WWII, he also studied and published poetry and writing, which later informed his daily practice as a painter. In an unusual romantic path late in life, he reunited with the first love of his life, Jessica. When they married and she joined him at his house, then in the Berkshires, it was Jessica who encouraged and inspired him to begin painting.

With no formal training, Clark immediately took on wide-ranging content in a primitive style but with a naturally gifted sense of composition and color. Clark’s paintings display worldly sophistication and insight, in contrast to his crude drawing and painting style. Multiple views reveal the depth and sharpness of these seemingly naïve depictions. Clark had no filter in his outlook or expression, and with intense honesty and wit, he addressed subject matter ranging from religion, life and death, war to Americana, pop culture, portraits, landscapes, animals, aliens, outer space etc.

The energy and directness of his paint application suggest a much younger artist at work, yet ironically his paintings often explore the theme of old age itself. At age 94, Clark stated, “There is a definite connection between my paintings and my poems – they both reflect my ninety-four years on this planet and my constant striving to make sense of it all.”

The show is hung in a salon-style presentation of 54 works, showcasing the rare breadth and depth of this iconoclastic artist’s uncategorizable poetic outpouring.

Text by Sam Sebren

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