Clark Britton, professor and former chair of the graphic design department at Wichita State University, was known for his dedication to visual storytelling and for continuing to work on his art well after he turned 90 years old.
He died June 2025, at 95. Those who worked with Britton at the university honored him with a showcase of his work in the McKnight Art Center.
Jeff Pulaski, the director and a professor in the school of graphic design, was Britton’s student at Wichita State when he attended as an undergraduate from 1986-1990.
“He was just phenomenal, incredible,” Pulaski said. “I feel like he’s kind of a renaissance man, which is kind of what we tried to show a little bit of (in the exhibit).”
Britton used several mediums, from printmaking to three dimensional models in his career. Several of those pieces are on display in the McKnight Art Center.
Britton was also known for his discipline, routine and how he navigated social media.
“He would get up every morning, I think at like five or six,” Pulaski said. “Spend a couple hours in the studio, and he posted stuff constantly. That’s kind of how he’s kept communication with his friends and former students and other people.”
Aimee Geist, the communications and recruitment specialist for the College of Fine Arts said that she thought Britton was ahead of his time in the pieces that he created.
“I see online now a lot of kits that you can purchase for little bookshelf rooms that you get to assemble everything,” Geist said. “Clark was doing that decades before it became a thing that you would package and market online.”
Geist and Pulaski remembered Britton’s flexibility with the mediums he used in his art. Britton would go from creating something in watercolor — which is fluid — to the meticulous work of papercutting small details and scenes.
“My understanding is the majority of them, he would go and get the scissors in the paper and just start cutting,” Pulaski said. “He wouldn’t draw it out first and then cut the lines.”
When Britton was a professor at WSU, he brought nationally and internationally renowned artists to the university.
“Some of the people that Clark was able to get to come to Wichita State and interact with students are just really, really high up there,” Pulaski said. “He didn’t know them, he just got in touch with them, convinced them to come.”
When Britton transitioned to the role of director, he still kept the role of mentor, even as former students stepped into roles of professionals themselves.
“In my mind, he was always kind of in teaching mode,” Pulaski said. “I think he was probably that way with his coworkers, he liked to share and explain and talk about the work that they did.”
Britton retired from the university in spring of 2000, and Pulaski came to work for the university in fall of 2000, and his role took over some of what Britton was doing.
“I don’t think I could have done this job with Clark,” Pulaski said. “(I’d feel) like a total imposter with Clark there.”
Some of Britton’s work is on display in the Clayton Staples gallery located on the second floor of the McKnight Art Center. The exhibit is open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., until Aug. 28.
Other works by Britton can be found at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Wichita Art Museum, WSU Special Collections and Washburn University.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to properly identify the name of the Clayton Staples Gallery.
Mason • Aug 11, 2025 at 12:07 pm
Clayton Staples