Mark Beard | Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938): Rediscovered British and French Murals

July 29 – September 11, 2021

Opening Reception:
Thursday, July 29, 2021
4:00 – 7:00 p.m.

ClampArt is pleased to announce “Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938): Rediscovered British and French Murals”—curated by New York artist Mark Beard (Bruce Sargeant’s great nephew).

Mark Beard has devoted more than two decades of his life to researching and collecting the work of Bruce Sargeant, a painter who largely concentrated on the idealization and celebration of the male form. Had Sargeant not met with a tragic and untimely death at the age of 40, he may have gone on to achieve the fame and renown awarded to such painters as James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Eakins, and Winslow Homer—artists to whom his style is often compared. Instead, Sargeant’s oeuvre remained relatively unknown for years until it was brought to light by the efforts of Beard.

“Rediscovered British and French Murals” brings together large-scale canvases from London and Paris that were known to exist but hidden from public view for over half a century. After years of meticulous research which resulted in the return of cherished murals from Milan, Italy, and the exhibition titled “The Lost Murals” at ClampArt in 2018, Beard impresses once again by unveiling a new group of canvases largely bound by the common theme of muscular young athletes at the peak of their form and prowess, including fencers, wrestlers, rowers, boxers, bicyclists, among many others. Both at rest and in motion, Sargeant took great pleasure in painstakingly depicting every muscle and detail of each of his model’s physiques.

Mark Beard (1956-) was born and raised in Salt Lake City. His portraits, nudes, bronzes, and handcrafted books have been exhibited worldwide, and he has also designed more than twenty theatrical sets in New York, London, and Germany. His works are in numerous museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut; and the Princeton, Harvard, and Yale University Museums, among many others.