The Clark Art Institute has announced a $45 million gift from the Aso O. Tavitian Foundation that will create a new wing, positioned between the museum’s main building and the Manton Research Center.
The Clark Art Institute will be building a new wing in the near future to house a treasure trove of 331 works of European art gifted by former trustee and philanthropist Aso O. Tavitian.
Aso. O. Tavitian, a part-time resident of Stockbridge and former Clark Art trustee, was the cofounder of SyncSort., one of the first software development companies to emerge after IBM unbounded its software. He also served on the boards of the Berkshire Theatre Group and the Austen Riggs Center.
In 1995, he established the Tavitian Foundation, which provides scholarships to students of Armenian and Bulgarian origin and sponsors projects that focus on the development of the Republic of Armenia.
The gift, which comes through the Aso O. Tavitian Foundation, includes more than $45 million to endow a new curatorial position to oversee the collection, provide necessary support for its long-term care and fund construction of a new Aso O. Tavitian Wing, which is expected to open sometime between 2027 and 2028.
Tavitian, served on The Clark’s board of trustees from 2006 to 2012. He had homes in Stockbridge and New York City. In 2011, he loaned 30 paintings and a sculpture from his personal collection to The Clark for its exhibition, “Eye to Eye: European Portraits, 1450-1850.”
Tavitian made the decision to gift The Clark, a significant portion of his collection. The art donation is worth “likely several hundred million dollars,” Candace Beinecke, president of the Tavitian Foundation, announced.
“In terms of its size, in the number of things that will be on view, this is definitely the most important gift we have received in terms of works of art probably since The Clark’s inception, since the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Clark,” said Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark Art Institute.
Meslay said this is the second sizable gift The Clark has received in the last two decades, noting that in 2007, the Manton Art Foundation gifted The Clark 300 paintings, drawings and prints by British artists, most notably John Constable, Joseph Mallord William Turner and Thomas Gainsborough, along with an endowment of $50 million.
The addition of the Tavitian collection will be transformational for not only The Clark, but the region, as it will add to the Berkshires’ already significant appeal as an arts destination, Meslay said.
“When the collection goes on display for the first time, all together, people will be stunned,” Meslay said. “It’s really something. It’s really one of the best and most important collections in the areas of old masters, early modern [artists] through the mid-19th century that has been assembled in the last 30 to 40 years. When it comes to classic art, people are saying, this could be one of the most important art donations made during the last 50 years.”
The Aso O. Tavitian Wing will be constructed between the existing museum building and the Manton Research Center, replacing “the bridge” between the two buildings that was originally built during the 1973 Manton addition designed by Pietro Belluschi and The Architects Collaborative of Cambridge.
Selldorf Architects has been selected by The Clark and the Tavitian Foundation to design the new wing. Annabelle Selldorf, who previously oversaw the 2014 renovation of the museum building and the 2016 renovation of the Manton Research Center’s public spaces, will lead the project’s design team.
The 331 works of art in the gift include 132 paintings, 130 sculptures, 39 drawings and 30 decorative arts objects. The entirety of the gift will be on view when the new Aso O. Tavitian Wing opens, although pieces from the collection will be on display before then.
Following an introductory presentation at the new wing’s opening, the gifted works on paper will be made available for study purposes and be presented in periodic displays. The majority of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts objects will be shown on a continual basis, both in the new wing and in The Clark’s permanent collection galleries.
“It is an incredible honor to receive this transformational gift,” Mesley said. “We were very, very, lucky to have the relationship with Aso, which was very, very strong. There are three main levels to this gift — the quality of the collection, the flexibility of it, and the financial support. We are being given an amazing collection of art, but something that is also important is that it comes with almost no strings attached when it comes to showing the works. They could be shown in the Tavitian Wing, but we could also exhibit part of them with the main collection or exhibit some of the main collection can be shown in the Tavitian Wing.”
Following an introductory presentation at the time of the new wing’s opening, the works on paper included in the gift will be made available for study purposes and be presented in periodic displays.
The Tavitian gift is particularly rich in portraiture, including important works by Parmigianino, Peter Paul Rubens, Elizabeth Vigée Lebrun, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and Jacques-Louis David, among others. Also included in the collection are landscapes by Hubert Robert, Claude-Joseph Vernet, and others; as well as religious paintings by artists including Jan van Eyck and Agnolo Bronzino. Sculptures include works in bronze, plaster, terracotta, marble, and other materials dating from the Renaissance through the late 19 century by artists including Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Andrea della Robbia, Gil de Siloé, Clodion (Claude Michel) and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.
Anthony van Dyck, “Portrait of Margaret Lemon,” c.1638, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute. Gift of Aso O. Tavitian Foundation.
“It’s some of the greatest names in the history of art. It is a collection of the very highest quality. It’s thrilling for us and truly transformational,” said Esther Bell, deputy director and Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Chief Curator of the Clark. “To place this collection in a public institution — to make these works available to anyone who wants to see them — is such a gift. This is a gift to everybody. It is such an incredible legacy of Aso Tavitian, who was a very amazing philanthropist.
“I’m almost speechless in my gratitude. I will say, this is any curator’s dream come true. It’s an important moment for The Clark. It’s an important moment for our community and for the Berkshires. It is only strengthening the arts we are able to offer the public.”
The collection will add works by 139 artists not already in The Clark’s collection.
“We’re adding certain important, historical figures in the history of art. For example, we have a drawing by Jean-Antoine Watteau, but we don’t have a great painting, so now, we’ll add one,” Bell said. “There are quite a number of examples like this. We’re filling in important gaps.”
Most significantly, the donation will enhance the museum’s sculpture collection.
“Currently, we have 38 sculptures in our collection. We will be adding 130 and they are all different media too — marble, plaster, terracotta, bronze,” she said. “And the works are by some of the most important sculptors of the Early Modern period — [Andrea] della Robbia, [Gian Lorenzo] Bernini; Gil de Siloé, an incredibly rare artist, and then from the 19th century, [Jean-Baptiste] Carpeaux, and [Jean Antoine] Houdon, the 18th-century artist.”
Bust of a Japanese Woman by Gustave Adolphe Désiré Crauk, c.1890, plaster, has been gifted to the Clark Art Institute, by the Aso O. Tavitian Foundation.
Beginning in 2004 Tavitian assembled one of the most important private groupings of early modern art, the release states. Following his death, his foundation gifted two paintings from his collection to The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Francesco Salviati’s “Bindo Altoviti, c.1545” and The Frick Collection, Giovanni Battista Moroni’s “Portrait of a Woman, c.1575.” Both featured prominently in exhibitions recently presented at those institutions. The gift to The Clark honors Tavitian’s wishes to keep a significant portion of his art collection intact so that the artworks could be displayed together.
“He was a friend to many curators, museum directors, professors, auction house colleagues, art dealers, conservators,” Bell said of Tavitian. “He was profoundly curious and knowledgeable about art and he surrounded himself with these incredible objects. It’s a collection of the very highest quality.”
Meindert Hobbema, “A Wooded Landscape with Travelers on a Road by Cottage,” 1660s, oil on panel. Clark Art Institute, Gift of Aso O. Tavitian Foundation.
Works include Jan van Eyck’s “Madonna of the Fountain, c. 1440,” Andrea della Robbia’s “Portrait of a Youth,” Peter Paul Ruben’s “Portrait of a Young Man” and Jacques-Louis David’s “Portrait of Dominique-Vincent Ramel de Nogaret.”
Works include Jan van Eyck’s “Madonna of the Fountain, c. 1440,” seen here, Andrea della Robbia’s “Portrait of a Youth,” Peter Paul Ruben’s “Portrait of a Young Man” and Jacques-Louis David’s “Portrait of Dominique-Vincent Ramel de Nogaret.”
In addition to creating an endowed curatorial position — the Aso O. Tavitian Curator of Early Modern European Painting and Sculpture, to oversee the collection — the gift also supports additional staff positions for the care and oversight of the collection, the publication of a catalog documenting the collection, as well as the ongoing care and maintenance of the new facility.
“It’s an amazing opportunity,” Bell said. ” … You don’t often have both, the funding and the gift.”