Have you ever wondered whatever happened to that little boy on a favorite TV commercial or the nine-year old girl that could sing soprano like a nightingale? Tony Clark was one of these gifted youngsters that danced his way into hearts of many on a grand scale. Born to cultured Norwegian parents, Tony learned at a very early age the significance of visual and performing arts. It is a life that has embraced him for more than four decades and created a master of dance, choreography, music and visual arts.
Raised in Montecito, California, Clark accompanied his parents to classical music concerts and ballet. His mother was a financial ambassador to Russia and his father, the owner of a centuries-old family transportation business of importing and exporting ships. The family’s focus on life was the beauty found in all segments of the fine arts and not on the framework of immediate material gratification so often found in America. Tony attributes his upbringing to his love of being an educator to children. He began the first Arts Program for the Unified School District of Irvine, California and has conducted many classes for kids at the Barnsdall Art Park and Theater.
“I think I love working with children because their minds are so formative. I want them to be exposed to the arts and to love them as I did. I started dancing and performing at three years old. “At four, I did my first commercial and I also won a national prize for a fairly large watercolor that I created,†said Clark. “When I curate, I always try to include some art that children can relate too also.â€
One of his favorite memories of interacting with children is his relationship with Alexandra Nechita, a child prodigy known as “Young Mozart with a paintbrush.â€Â He met young nine-year-old Alexandra while serving as the Executive Director of the Severin Wunderman Museum in Irvine. By the time she was 14, Clark had curated and organized a museum tour of her work. “She (Alexandra) is 23 now. Still beautiful with a great heart and talent and she is finishing her Master of Fine Arts program at Pepperdine,†boasts Clark.
For several years, Tony was educated by and performed for many, including Eugene Loring, Irina Bronislava, his Godmother Tamara Toumanova, Merce Cunningham, Le Ballet de l’Opera de Paris, but it was with Maurice Bejart in Bruxelles where music was a requirement in learning art. He learned piano and music composition and how to become the music. Paris offered a variety of musicians, dancers, singers and artists countless evenings together discussing the arts and exchanging ideas.
Like the respected artist, Jean Cocteau, Tony wanted to do it all. He became a choreographer, director and producer of plays, films and theater. As a curator of French exhibitions earned Clark the award of knighthood as Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for helping to keep the French arts alive.
“Cocteau did it all. If he did not do it himself, he produced it. He is the person that deserves the credit for bringing visual and performing arts together. Most people only know him as a writer or a filmmaker. He saw all his talents as Poesie Plastique. I live in this tradition,†said Clark.
During 2006, Clark curated a retrospective of Cocteau’s work throughout Japan and organized an exhibition for the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. This led him to be appointed to the board of directors of a new museum dedicated to Jean Cocteau in 2011 and named Jean Cocteau Collection de Severin Wunderman in Musee Menton, located in the south of France.
Today the ‘child prodigy’ serves on a dozen boards of art organizations and museums and lectures at seminars and universities in the US and abroad. He is also an appraiser through The Arts of the Theatre Gallery that he started in 1979 and is considered an expert on French art.
By Kate Garton/AAPJ
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