Edward Clark

Summary of Edward Clark

Ed Clark is an American Color Field painter whose style was shaped by the years he spent in Paris in the early 1950s. As an African-American who had been raised in the segregated South, he found Paris tolerant, and the atmosphere encouraging. While there, he developed a sophisticated abstract style that was markedly influenced by the Tachist painter Nicolas de Stael. His early work is remembered for his "push-broom technique," which encouraged his full physical involvement in painting. He is also noted for the monumental scale of his work, and the fact that he is one of the first painters to have used shaped canvases.

Biography of Edward Clark

Edward Clark was born in the Storyville section of New Orleans on May 6, 1926. When he was six, his parents Merion and Edward Sr., moved their family to Baton Rouge where they lived in a shotgun house with his father's great aunt. At this time, Clark began his elementary schooling, where he was first exposed to drawing. On one occasion, a nun at his Catholic school issued a challenge to Clark and his classmates: whoever could produce the best tree drawing would receive a gold star. Taking up the challenge, Clark won acknowledgement from his teachers for his artistic abilities as well as the gold star, and this experience awakened in Clark the desire to become an artist.

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Important Art by Edward Clark

Untitled (1955)

In this photograph, Clark stands in front of his painting Concord, which was the largest work Clark completed in Paris.

The City (1952)

The City stands as one of Clark's first major experiments in abstraction. The painting evolved while he was working on a realistic representation of the city; dissatisfied with his results, he proceeded to "destroy" the image with his brush but found he liked the result of his destruction. Executed in an all-over manner, the colors almost appear to be in dialogue with one another.

Untitled (1957)

Although not the first, this work is amongst Clark's early experimentations with shaped paintings. Like many of Clark's works, this piece is large in scale, measuring 46 by 55 inches

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Influences and Connections

Influences on Artist

Influenced by Artist

Open Influences

Influences on Artist

Artists

• Nicolas de Staël
• Jackson Pollock
• Mark Rothko
• Willem de Kooning
• Helen Frankenthaler

Friends

• Joan Mitchell
• Helen Gardner
• Herbert Gentry
• Al Held

Movements

• Expressionism
• Surrealism
• Art Informel
• Abstract Expressionism
• Color Field Painting

Influenced by Artist

Artists

• Frank Stella
• Al Held
• Sam Francis
• George Sugarman

Friends

• Joan Mitchell
• Jacob Lawrence
• Herbert Gentry
• Jean Miotte

Movements

• Hard-edge Painting

Close Influences

Useful Resources on Edward Clark