Arthur Clark

Arthur M. Clark (1935 - 2023)

Art died peacefully at his home in Taos, New Mexico, on November 9, 2023 at the age of 88.

Born to Vera and Clinton Clark in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1935, he was raised in Oak Park, Illinois, where he graduated high school. He later attended the University of Cincinnati, where he studied industrial design. It was around that time that he married his first wife, Esther Littmann Clark. 

He was drafted into the U.S. Army, and while stationed at Fort Knox Kentucky he taught new recruits how to drive tanks. Following his peacetime service he went on to work as a designer for a Madison Avenue design firm on the 1964 World’s Fair. During this period he traveled to six European cities and set up trade shows for the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In 1966, Art took a job at IBM in one of the few creative positions working on trade shows in Armonk, New York, and IBM’s international sales group GBGI in White Plains, New York. In 1983 he became the exhibition designer at the IBM Gallery of Science and Art at IBM’s new headquarters in New York City. He remained in this role until the museum closed in 1994. Art was known for his pioneering thematic approach to exhibit design and use of saturated colors on the walls to complement the art rather than the customary white. Art loved this work. In addition to his work for IBM he had an equally busy freelance career as an exhibit designer for various museums and galleries such as the Whitney Museum, the Japan Society, and the Katonah Museum of Art. After he retired he continued to do volunteer work as a designer for various galleries and museums, including the Martinez Hacienda in Taos, NM. 

He retired to North Salem, New York, with his partner Sally Mayer before moving with her to Taos in 1998. Together they collaborated on many endeavors that benefited the cultural community in Taos. It was also in Taos that Art deepened his purely creative work of drawing, painting, and sculpture. Just as Art embraced the mountain community of Taos, he also loved the summers he spent with Sally surrounded by lake and forest in the beautiful little community of Grand Lake Stream, Maine. 

Art was predeceased by brother Chico Clark, Chico’s daughter Ann Marie Starr, brother Bill Clark, Bill’s wife Lynn, and his daughters-in-law Ruth Silman and Joy Handsberry. He is survived by: his ex-wife Esther Clark; his son Matthew and wife Alison Macondray, his son Timothy, his two grandchildren Jacob and Phoebe Clark; his partner Sally Mayer, her daughter Jennifer Dryfoos and her grandson Max, Liz Dryfoos and husband Tom Young and her grandchildren Lucy and Tom Young; his sister-in-law Anita Clark, along with numerous nieces, nephews and their families.

Anyone wishing to make a donation in Art’s name can donate to the Downeast Lakes Land Trust, based in Grand Lake Stream, Maine at downeastlakes.org.

Arrangements by Rivera Family Funeral Home, Taos. To share a memory, please visit our website at riverafuneralhome.com