Shadow Visionaries: From Goya to the Gothic Imagination

With Anne Leonard, curator at the Clark Art Institute; Guillaume Kientz, Director of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library; and moderated by Daniella Berman, Director of Programs & Partnerships at The Drawing Foundation.

About the Clark Art Institute

Located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, the Clark Art Institute is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark Library, consisting of over 300,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries.

The highly acclaimed Williams College/Clark Graduate Program in the History of Art is housed at the Clark and several members of the Clark’s staff teach in the program. The Clark’s 140-acre campus in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts features miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing a distinctive setting in which to experience art and nature.

The Panelists

Anne Leonard is Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Clark Art Institute, where she also teaches in the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art. Prior to the Clark, she was a curator at the Smart Museum of Art and lecturer in Art History at the University of Chicago. She holds a PhD in Art History from Harvard. Besides Shadow Visionaries, her other recent exhibitions include Promenades on Paper: Eighteenth-Century French Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (2022–23), Hue & Cry: French Printmaking and the Debate over Colors (2021–22), and Arabesque (2019-20). She curated the Shadow Visionaries: French Artists Against the Current (1840-1870) exhibition currently presented at the Clark Art Institute.

Guillaume Kientz is the Director and CEO of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library (HSM&L) in New York, where he is currently leading a major restoration and renovation initiative. A celebrated art historian and curator, Kientz is an expert in Spanish painting (El Greco, Velázquez, Ribera, Goya) and European Caravaggism. His curatorial approach is distinguished by a strong focus on the visitor experience, built on extensive travel and academic background in Political Science and Art History.

His career highlights include eight years as a Curator at the Musée du Louvre, specializing in Hispanic and Latin American art, and serving as Curator of European Art at the Kimbell Art Museum. Kientz is widely recognized for developing and co-curating landmark exhibitions, notably Velázquez (Grand Palais, 2015) and the comprehensive El Greco retrospective (2019). A regular contributor to major art publications, he is also a recipient of honors such as the Daniel Arasse Fellowship from Villa Medici.

Daniella Berman is Director of Programs & Partnerships at The Drawing Foundation. She is an art historian, curator, and researcher based in New York City. She holds a B.A. from Yale University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. Berman has contributed to many publications and exhibitions, including Horace Vernet, (Château de Versailles, 2024), and Jacques-Louis David: Radical Draftsman, (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022). She is co-editor of Duke House and the Making of Modern New York: Lives and Afterlives of a Fifth Avenue Mansion (Brill, 2022). She’s had fellowships and positions at the Yale University Art Gallery, the Yale Center for British Art, the National Gallery of Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Berman has worked as Special Projects Researcher at Villa Albertine. She is the Director of Partnerships and Programs at The Drawing Foundation. Additionally, Berman is an adjunct instructor at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University, and serves as Vice President of the Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture (HECAA) and an at-large board member for the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art (AHNCA).