August 10: James McNeill Whistler’s nocturnes, which were some of his most controversial and influential paintings, will be the subject of the lecture “Night in the City: Whistler, Fireworks, and Dancing Girls” at 3 pm, at the Clark. Margaret MacDonald, co-author of the Whistler paintings catalogue raisonné and author of the Whistler drawings, pastels, and watercolors catalogue raisonné, will discuss Whistler’s nocturnes and their relation to his life and times. Admission to the lecture is free. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303.
Through October 19: Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, the first exhibition to explore “painting softly,” a distinctive and unexamined approach to painting exemplified in works by James McNeill Whistler and George Inness, is on view at the Clark. The exhibition brings together forty paintings by leading American artists working around 1900, including James McNeill Whistler, George Inness, William Merritt Chase, John Twachtman, Eduard Steichen, and others, to examine this style of painting through which artists obscured their brush strokes. The Clark, 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA. www.clarkart.edu, 413-458-2303.