Marc Clark

{{Short description|British-born Australian sculptor (1923–2021)}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Marc Clark

|image = Mark Clark at his Home, May 2016.jpg

|image_size = 300px

|caption = Clark in 2016

|birth_date = {{birth date|1923|10|20|df=y}}

|birth_place = Surrey, England

|death_date = {{death date and age|2021|9|12|1923|10|20|df=y}}

|death_place = Australia

}}

File:SIR EDMUND BARTON.JPG, outside Barton Offices, Canberra]]

File:Clark "Governor Bligh" (1987).jpg, Bligh & Barney Reserve, The Rocks]]

Marc Clark (20 October 1923 – 12 September 2021) was a British-born Australian academic, sculptor and printmaker.{{Cite book|title=Australian Sculptures.|last=Scarlet|first=Ken|publisher=Nelson|year=1980|isbn=0170052923|pages=106, 107}}{{Cite book|title=Artists and Galleries of Australia and New Zealand|last=Germaine|first=Max|publisher=Boolarong|year=1984|isbn=0908175876|pages=109}}

Clark's sculptures can be found in parks in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra in Australia and in Tonga.

Early life

Marc Clark was born in Surrey, England in October 1923. At age 14, he enrolled in the Sydney Cooper School of Art in Canterbury, England, where he studied for four years.

During World War II, Clark served with the 9th Queens' Royal Lancers of the British Army in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Austria. In 1948, he enrolled in the Royal College of Art (RCA). In 1951, Clark received a one-year travelling Scholarship from the RCA, which he spent in France.

Teaching

After graduation from RCA, Clark lectured at the Watford College of the Arts from 1953 to 1962. He then moved to Australia, when he taught basic design at the Caulfield Institute of Technology. After six months, Clark was appointed Master of Drawing at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School.{{Cite book|title=Birth of a Gallery|last=Westbrook|first=Eric|publisher=Macmillan|year=1968|pages=79}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tvau4ZW_32kC&q=marc+clark+sculpture&pg=PA95|title=Creating the Victorian College of the Arts|last=Pascoe|first=Joseph|year=2000|publisher=Macmillan Education AU|page=95|isbn=9780958574396}} Clark introduced Clay Portraiture and lectured in Human Anatomy.{{Cite book|title=Development of Australian Sculpture from 1788–1975.|last=Sturgeon|first=Graeme|publisher=Thames & Hudson Australia Pty, Limited.|year=1978|isbn=978-0500271162|pages=201}}

When the new Victorian College of the Arts introduced a school of sculpture, Clark was appointed Senior Lecturer.{{Cite book|title=Men of Achievement|publisher=International Biographical Centre|year=1984|isbn=0-900332-74-3|pages=198}} During his decades at the college, he frequently served as Dean of the Art School.

Clark retired from the college in 1984 and moved to Queensland.{{Cite journal|last=Turner|first=Tonya|date=11–17 March 2020|title=Maker's mark|journal=Brisbane News|volume=1266|pages=8–10}} He continued to work as a Visiting Lecturer at several schools, including Dandenong TAFE, Melbourne University, Hervey Bay Senior College, and Deakin University over various periods. He retired from lecturing in 2007.

Work

Sasha Grishin said about Clark:

"A major preoccupation with his art has been with the notion of timelessness, an art which more that commemorate an individual person's ego or freeze an historical event in time."{{Cite journal|last=Grishin|first=Sasha|date=1993|title=Catalyst of Forms (26)|journal=Art International|pages=56–59}}

After finishing his studies at RCA, Clark produced sculptures including Peter Cheyney's hands and a death mask of Evan Walters.

Clark's monumental works in Australian parks and gardens include the Sculpture of Captain James Cook{{Cite web|url=http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/discovery/display/32283-captain-james-cook|title=Captain James Cook {{!}} Monument Australia|last=Design|first=UBC Web|website=monumentaustralia.org.au|access-date=2016-05-20}} in Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1971 he was commissioned by the Government of Tonga to create a statue of Queen Sālote Tupou III. This is located at Nukuʻalofa, Tonga.

A statue Edmund Barton{{Cite web|url=http://www.images.act.gov.au/duslibrary/imagesact.nsf/8574356a230114e8ca256ad500042b9c/653731c91de764e14a256d78001e7c82!OpenDocument|title=Edmund Barton statue outside Barton Offices, corner of Kings Avenue and Macquarie Street, Barton|last=Bill|first=Pedersen|website=images.act.gov.au|access-date=2016-05-27}} located at Barton House, in Canberra, was the next major work completed by Clark in 1981. In 1983 Clark contributed a cast of the 'Eternal Flame' to the Rats of Tobruk Memorial{{Cite web|last=Design|first=UBC Web|title=Rats of Tobruk Memorial {{!}} Monument Australia|url=http://monumentaustralia.org.au/display/90081-rats-of-tobruk-memorial|access-date=2016-05-29|website=monumentaustralia.org.au}} in Canberra.

From 1985 to 1987 Clark was commissioned to provide three bronze sculptures.

Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N.,{{Cite web|url=http://www.bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&p=25056&cmd=sp&d=pics|title=Snapper Point|last=Flinders|first=Mathew|date=1987}} R.N., in Mornington Park, Mornington, Victoria,
Captain William Bligh, R.N.,{{Cite web|url=http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/government---colonial/display/23149-captain-william-bligh/photo/3|title=Captain William Bligh {{!}} Monument Australia|last=Design|first=UBC Web|website=monumentaustralia.org.au|access-date=2016-05-20}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=enDsAAAAMAAJ|title=Sydney's Sculpture|last=Lumley|first=Ann|date=1990-01-01|publisher=Longman Cheshire|isbn=9780582868205}} at Cadmans Cottage, Sydney
Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller{{Cite web|url=http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/melbourne-sculptures-historical-political#.V0gTxVcaA6Q|title=Melbourne Sculptures|last=von Mueller|first=Ferdinand|website=Melbourne Sculptures}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.eoas.info/search-faceted.html?q=marc|title=Search – Encyclopedia of Australian Science|last=Centre|publisher=The University of Melbourne Scholarship Research|website=eoas.info|access-date=2016-05-28}} in the Botanical Gardens, Melbourne.

Clark's works in the Australian Federal Parliament House Art Collection include 'Alpha and Omega', 'Ancient Sites' and 'Monument to a Hero II{{Cite news|url=http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/barnaby-joyce-blasts-parliament-art-sculptures/story-e6freon6-1225811202097|title=Barnaby Joyce blasts Parliament art sculptures|last=Viellers|first=Renee|date=17 December 2009|work=Monument to a Hero II|via=Courier Mail, Brisbane}}{{Cite book|title=Expressing Australia, Art in Parliament House|publisher=Canberra [A.C.T.] Joint House Department of Parliament House|year=1993|isbn=0642195218|pages=106, 107}}'.

Lenton Parr commented,

"Marc Clark is widely acknowledged to be a very accomplished and versatile sculptor who has created with equal assurance a succession of commissioned memorial works on a monumental scale and a large number of other sculptures more personally conceived and motivated by his own powers of observation and invention."{{Cite book|title=Another Colonial Boy|last=Clark, Biography|first=Marc|publisher=Publishing, QLD|year=2004|isbn=1-876344-31-8|pages=Back Cover}}

Clark's abstract works form a human relationship to figurative expression through the portrayal of personal and human elements in geometrical forms. The bronze sculpture Stairway to Nowhere (Now in Queensland Art gallery collection) represents his own experience of the result of bombing in WW2 where functional buildings were transformed into symbols of futility. (Dr Sasha Grishin)