WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Saturday, July 12, at 11 am, the Clark Art Institute celebrates the opening of its newest exhibition Berenice Abbott's Modern Lens with a free lecture. 

 

Grace Hanselman, exhibition curator and curatorial assistant for works on paper, introduces the work of Berenice Abbott, a pioneering documentary photographer known best for her portraits of the Parisian avant-garde and striking snapshots of twentieth-century New York.

 

The talk takes place in the Manton Research Center auditorium.

 

In the 1920s, American-born Abbott worked as an assistant to Man Ray in Paris before her career as a portraitist solidified in its own right. In a major artistic pivot, she returned to the United States in 1929 to undertake her most celebrated project: documenting New York City's rapid urban transformation. Lesser-known but equally accomplished is her body of work photographing other cities and towns in the American Northeast. 

 

This exhibition showcases selections from a 2007 gift of over 400 Abbott photographs, some iconic and rarely if ever exhibited, highlighting her enduring impact on modern photography.

 

Free. Accessible seats available. Advance registration required at clarkart.edu/events or call 413 458 0524.