On Monday, June 28, 2021, the New York Times published an obituary of John Clem Clarke, a Pop artist who drew critical comparisons to Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Rauschenberg. The Times reported that Clarke passed on June 5 in a nursing home in Keizer, Oregon, at the age of 83.

Though AAM’s collection includes several Clarke works, visitors are most likely to recognize his crowd-pleasing Hot Buttered Corn, a two-panel acrylic painting mounted on Mylar that has been a staple in Butz Gallery. Created in 1988 and purchased for the Museum in 1990 courtesy of the Reverand and Mrs. Van S. Merle-Smith Jr. Endowment Fund, the colorful and cartoonish Corn has thrilled viewers of all ages with its color, boldness, and comic-book immediacy.

Last week the Times requested a photo of Corn to run with their obituary, and they presented it as one of his key and representative works. What the obit did not include is the fact that for years Clarke had divided his time between Soho in New York City and a farmhouse in Bucks County that he shared with wife Jane, and that they both found inspiration in our region.

John Clem Clarke (American, 1937-2021), Hot Buttered Corn, 1988, acrylic on canvas mounted on Mylar, 57 x 90 in. Allentown Art Museum: purchase, The Reverend and Mrs. Van S. Merle-Smith Jr. Endowment Fund, 1990. (1990.011.000)

“I love the Lehigh Valley because it’s such a mix of so many kinds of people, and John did too,” said Jane in a phone conversation on June 30. “We knew artists who lived here, and CEOs. Visually it is a stimulating place. And the landscape, of course, is beautiful.”

As for Corn, it’s one of her favorite works. “Not only the colors and the aesthetic, but the steam coming out–it was cartoon-like and fun. There was a great deal of wit and humor in John’s work. It does make one smile.”

Jane remembered Corn as one in a series of works in which John caricatured foods, rendered in such a way that you can almost smell them. “John felt it [his work] was serious and fun–all art does not have to be serious to be serious art.”

Father and daughter in the studio

John and Jane’s daughter, Trillion, remembered that the artist “loved having a converted barn to work in. The only complaint he had about Bucks County is that he was often distracted because he had to mow the lawn.”

Trillion remembers visits from neighbors John and Susan Opie and other artists, and recalled how the rural setting tapped into her father’s own childhood. “He thought it was important for me to be bored and by myself, figuring out how to entertain myself, exploring my imagination.”

Though Clarke was perhaps most widely known for his Pop-styled paintings, his daughter said he created work almost up to his final days, continuing to challenge himself, always seeking to interact with people on a deeper level.

The artist with bullfrog

“If he wasn’t painting he was drawing,” said Trillion, also by phone. “He didn’t like to be pinned down. In his later years [around 2005] he started to work with the computer to make prints, really groundbreaking work, unrelated to his work before but his aesthetics were there. He was in a unique position to make this type of art. He had so much background in composition and light and shadow.” She said these later works are part of John’s legacy as well.

Longtime AAM members will remember that in 1998 the AAM mounted a solo show of Clarke’s work called Comforts, Near Disasters, and Pentimenti. In an interview that year with Morning Call writer Geoff Gehman for a preview article on the exhibition, Clarke said about his own artworks: “They’re not wishy-washy. They’re either this or that. My paintings have all hard-edged areas. I hate soft. They have that printed mechanical quality that I love that’s also very American.”

Longtime AAM members will remember that in 1998 the AAM mounted a solo show of Clarke’s work called Comforts, Near Disasters, and Pentimenti. In an interview that year with Morning Call writer Geoff Gehman for a preview article on the exhibition, Clarke said about his own artworks: “They’re not wishy-washy. They’re either this or that. My paintings have all hard-edged areas. I hate soft. They have that printed mechanical quality that I love that’s also very American.”

Read the New York Times obituary: “John Clem Clarke, a Pop Art Perennial in SoHo, Dies at 83” (nytimes.com)

Read the Morning Call preview of Comforts, Near Disasters, and Pentimenti: “Orderly Disorder: John Clem Clarke Strives for Pinto Quality in His Art” (mcall.com)

View the other Clarke works in AAM’s collection: John Clem Clarke in the collection

Buy the catalogue from AAM’s 1998 exhibition (quantities limited): Comforts, Near Disasters, and Pentimenti exhibition catalogue

Cover of the exhibition catalogue for Comforts, Near Disasters, and Pentimenti, published 1998 by the Allentown Art Museum, 56 pages, 12 x 9 inches, foreword by Peter F. Blume, essay by April Kingsley.