Ed Clark

American, 1926-2019

Untitled (New York Series)

© Ed Clark

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© Ed Clark

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Untitled (New York Series), 1991

Artwork Details

Currently on View

Materials

acrylic on canvas

Measurements

support: 81 1/2 x 74 inches (207.01 x 187.96 cm)

Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Credit

Gift of Mrs. George A. Forman, by exchange, 2018

Accession ID

2018:8

Ed Clark shaped the oval and semicircular forms and horizontal bands of Untitled (New York Series) using a push broom, a technique he first developed more than three decades prior and that became a signature of his long artistic career. Clark relished how this unusual paint brush could “crush through things,” as he put it, tearing through previously laid gestures with its thick, abrasive bristles to leave deeply textured passages of paint in softly blended hues.  
 
Like many of his peers in the second generation of Abstract Expressionist artists, Clark served during World War II. After his time in the Air Force, he lived and worked in Paris, where he discovered a love for abstract art and passion for color and light. Later travels to Crete, Nigeria, Martinique, Cuba, Brazil, Morocco, China, Mexico, and other global destinations would further influence his palette, and the lyric, radiant hues and quietly dynamic composition of Untitled (New York Series) exemplify the inspiration from New York and Paris he brought to his paintings of the 1990s.