Current
Mid-Career
Early
Edward Clark (1926-2019) was an abstract painter whose work has drawn accolades nationally and internationally. He is the first painter credited with working on a shaped canvas, an innovation that influenced contemporary art through the 1950s and 1960s. He is also known for his powerful brush stroke, large-scale canvases, and especially, his use of color.
Clark with Sister Shirley (1929)
Born in the Storyville section of New Orleans in 1926, Ed Clark studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1947 to 1951 and L’Academie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris in 1952. Clark received encouragement from two of his instructors, Louis Ritman at the Art Institute of Chicago and Edouard Goerg at the Grande Chaumière. However, the young Clark’s work was most strongly influenced by Nicolas de Staël’s painting “The Football Game” which was exhibited at “Salon d’Automne” in 1952.
Clark with John Earnest and friend, Paris (1952)
Clark with artist Joan Mitchell, Vetheuil (1985)
After living for five years in Paris, Clark came to New York and became a charter member of the Brata gallery on Tenth Street, where artists like George Sugarman, Sal Romano, Al Held, John Krushenick, and Ronald Bladen were shown. It was during this period that he made his celebrated shaped canvas, which appeared in the Brata gallery Christmas group show in 1957. The painting was later to be described in a 1972 Art News article by Lawrence Campbell as generally considered to be the first of its kind.
From left Clark, Herbert Gentry, Jacob Lawrence, Scunder and Vincent Smith, New York (1989)
With artist Yayoi Kusama, Tokyo (1998)
Another early shaped painting made by Clark in 1957 is now in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Clark made his first oval painting while living in Vétheuil, France (early home of Claude Monet) in 1968. This was almost a decade after Clark first started using his push broom technique, which allows him to move paint swiftly across the canvas, creating broad bold strokes.
Clark with collector Reginald Lewis, Paris (1988)
Clark has always been an inventive and creative artist, experimenting with techniques, like his innovative use of the push broom, for example, and his method of working on paper with dry pigment, inspired by the “pouring sand” technique of the Pueblo tribe of the American Southwest.
Clark with daughter Melanca and granddaughter Nyla, New York (2013)
Clark has won multiple awards including the Art Institute of Chicago’s Legends and Legacy Award (2013), Detroit Institute of Art’s -Alain Locke International Art Award (2020), Rush Philanthropic Arts’ Art for Life Honored Artist Award (2000), the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painters and Sculptors Grant (1998), the United States Congressional Achievement Award (1994), the National Endowment for the Arts’ Master Award (1972), and Musée des Arts Decoratifs’ Prix d’Othon Friesz (1955). Clark passed in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan on October 18,2019.
Current/ Upcoming Exhibitions
The Whitney’s Collection: Selections from 1900-1965
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
(2019 -)
Past Exhibitions (selected)
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2024 |
Ed Clark, Turner Contemporary (Margate, England) Americans in Paris: Americans Working in Postwar France, 1946-1962, Grey Art Gallery @ NYU |
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2023 |
Ed Clark: The Big Sweep, Hauser & Wirth, New York |
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2022 |
Ed Clark: Without a Doubt, Hauser & Wirth, London |
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Ed Clark & Stanley Whitney, On the Path, Hauser & Wirth, South Hampton |
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2021 |
Ed Clark: Expanding the Image, Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles |
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2020 |
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, The Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), de Young Museum (San Francisco), The Broad (Los Angeles), The Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn), Crystal Bridges Museum (Bentonville), Tate Modern (London) The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection: Generations a History of Black Abstract Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis |
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2019 |
Ed Clark, Hauser &Wirth, New York |
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2018 |
Ed Clark, A Survey, Mnuchin Gallery, New York The Long Run, Museum of Modern Art, New York Painting: Now & Forever, Part III, Greene Naftali, Matthew Marks, New York In Tribute to Jack Tilton: A Selection from 35 Years, Tilton Gallery, New York The Language of Abstraction, University of Maryland University College, Adelphi |
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2017 |
Impulse, Pace Gallery, London Edward Clark: Paintings, Tilton Gallery, New York Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952-1965, Grey Art Gallery, New York |
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2016 |
Ed Clark, N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit Modern Heroics, Newark Museum, Newark |
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2015 |
Ed Clark: Locomotion, N’Namdi Contemporary, Miami Works on Paper, Greene Naftali, New York |
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2014 |
Unveiled, University of Maryland University College, Marlboro Ed Clark: A Thousand Lights of Sun, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles Ed Clark: Big Bang, Tilton Gallery, New York Beyond the Spectrum: Abstraction in African American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York |
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2013 |
50 Years of Abstraction, N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit Blues for Smoke, Whitney Museum, New York, Wesner Center for the Arts, Columbus Le Mouvement: The Ed Clark Retrospective, N’Namdi Contemporary, Miami |
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2012 |
Louisiana Roots: Ed Clark Returns Home, Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans The Lure of Paris, Loretta Howard Gallery, New York |
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2011 |
Ed Clark, The Search: A Sixty Year Retrospective, The N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit Beyond Black: Ed Clark, Eugene Martin and John T. Scott, Shaw Center for the Arts, Baton Rouge Abstract Relations, Driskell Center at University of Delaware, Newark |
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2010 |
African American Abstract Masters, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York Flow, Rush Arts Gallery, New York Masters for the First Family, Parish Gallery, Washington |
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2009 |
Wiser Than God vs. Younger Than Jesus, BLT Gallery, New York Forms of Abstraction, Walk Tall Gallery, East Hampton |
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2008 |
Ed Clark: For the Sake of the Search, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola |
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2007 |
Rebirth, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, New York |
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2006 |
Something to Look Forward To, The Phillips Museum of Art, Lancaster |
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2004 |
From Paris to New York, Parish Gallery, Washington |
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2003 |
Ed Clark: Paris/New York: Le Mouvement, G. R. N’Namdi Gallery, Chicago No Greater Love: Abstraction, Jack Tilton/Anna Kustera Gallery, New York |
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2002 |
Quiet as it’s Kept, Christine Koenig Gallery Vienna, Austria Mexican Series, Peg Alston Fine Art, New York |
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2001 |
Homage to the Year of the Dragon, China Series |
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2000 |
Special Preview of Clark’s Recent Works: From Sicily to Egypt |
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1998 |
Sweeps &Views; Clark & Cowans, Rush Arts Gallery, New York |
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1997 |
Explorations in the City of Lights: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945-1975, Studio Museum of Harlem, New York |
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1996 |
G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, MI A.F.T.U. Bill Hodges Gallery, New York |
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1994 |
Alitash Kebede Fine Arts, Los Angeles |
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1993 |
Wilmer Jennings Gallery, New York |
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1992 |
The Search for Freedom: African-American Abstraction 1945-1975, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York |
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1991 |
Galerie Resche, Paris, France Spiral Gallery, Brooklyn |
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1990 |
Gallery Kesser-Bohbot, Hamburg, Germany |
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1989 |
Manhattan East Gallery of Fine Arts, New York |
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1988 |
Alitash Kebede Fine Arts, Los Angeles |
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1986 |
Randall Gallery, New York |
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1983 |
Randall Gallery, New York |
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1982 |
Citicorp Center, New York |
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1981 |
Retrospective, Studio Museum of Harlem, New York |
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1980 |
Randall Gallery, New York |
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1979 |
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge |
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1978 |
Peg Alston Arts, New York |
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1977 |
Sullivant Gallery, Ohio State University, Columbus |
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1976 |
James Yu Gallery, New York |
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1975 |
South Houston Gallery, New York |
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1974 |
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Lehman College, New York 141 Prince Street, New York |
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1972 |
Donald Judd’s Loft, New York |
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1971 |
American Embassy, Paris, France |
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1969 |
Galerie Creuze, Paris, France |
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1966 |
Brata Gallery, New York |
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1958 |
Galerie Creuze, Paris, France |
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1955 |
YMCA, Chicago |
COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox, Buffalo
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn
California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles
Centro de Arte Moderno, Guadalajara (Mexico)
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
James E. Lewis Museum, Morgan State College, Baltimore
Kresge Museum, Kalamazoo
Louisiana State University, New Orleans
Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, Bahia (Brazil)
Museum Solidarity, Titograd (Yugoslavia)
Newark Museum, Newark
The New York Public Library Schomburg Center, New York
Pérez Art Museum, Miami
The John and Mable Ringling Museum, Sarasota
Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Syracuse University, Syracuse
University of Kentucky, Lexington
University of Maryland University College, Marlboro
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Articles
ARTICLES
Ed Clark, Turner Contemporary review — high-energy action paintings from an abstract pioneer, Maya Jaggi, Financial Times (June 17, 2024)
Turner Contemporary is Presenting First European Institutional Exhibition of Ed Clark, Pioneering Abstract Painter with International Profile, Victoria Valentine, Culture Type, (June 16, 2024)
Allie Biswas with Melanca Clark, Ursula Magazine (Feb. 22, 2022)
Painter Ed Clark Pushes Boundaries, Literally, Shana Nys Dambrot, LA Weekly (Sept. 10, 2020)
Ed Clark: The Lost Abstract Expressionist, Jordan Riefe, Art & Object (Dec. 1, 2020)
Passages, Ed Clark 1926-2019, Jessica Bell Brown, Artforum International (Dec. 19, 2019)
Ed Clark, Abstract Painter Whose Brush was a Broom, Dies at 93, Emily Langor, The Washington Post (Oct. 24, 2019)
Ed Clark, Key Postwar Artist Who Changed the Shape of Abstract Painting, Is Dead at 93, Andrew Russeth, Artnews (Oct. 19, 2019)
Painter Ed Clark, 93, A Pioneering Figure in Post-War Abstraction, Has Died, Victoria Valentine, Culture Type, (Oct. 19, 2019)
Painter Ed Clark’s First Hauser & Wirth Show Radiates Effortless Beauty. But It’s the Product of Decades of Toughing It Out, Charles Moore, Artnews (Oct. 4, 2019)
Storied Painter Ed Clark Joins Hauser & Wirth, Andrew Russeth, Artnews (July 22, 2019)
Whitney Museum Acquires Works by Emma Amos, Ed Clark, Many More, Claire Selvin, Artnews (April 9, 2019)
Ed Clark by Glenn Ligon, Luncheon Magazine (Issue N. 7 – Spring/Summer 2019)
Recognizing Ed Clark’s Contribution to Abstraction, John Yau, Hyperallergic (Oct. 10, 2018)
At 7 Galleries, the Ecstatic Flow of Paint and the Stories it Can Tell, Roberta Smith, The New York Times (Sept. 27, 2018)
From the Archives: Ed Clark’s Dynamically Constructed Abstractions, Artnews (Sept. 21, 2018)
Ed Clark Will Have Career Survey at Mnuchin Gallery in New York, Artnews (Sept. 4, 2018)
Brooklyn Museum’s ‘Seminal’ Ed Clark Acquisition Headed to Soul of a Nation, Frieze New York (May 3, 2018)
MoMa Upends Its Collection to Celebrate Late Careers, Roberta Smith, The New York Times (Dec. 28, 2017)
Witnessing Ed Clark’s Balancing Act at Tilton Gallery, Ben Davis, Artnet (Feb. 3, 2017)
The Second Generation Abstract Expressionist Ed Clark, John Yau, Hyperallergic (Jan. 29, 2017)
Ed Clark: Locomotion. A Life in the Arts, Jeff Edwards, Art Pulse Magazine (2016)
Edward Clark by Jack Whitten, BOMB’s Oral History Project (2014)
As a Painter Grows Older, His Creativity Endures, Rachel L. Swarns, The New York Times (Feb. 23, 2014)
Sculpting with Color: Ed Clark and Lynda Benglis are still making art on a grand scale, Barry Schwabsky, The Nation (May 12, 2014)
David Hammons Curates Edward Clark, Brian Boucher, Art in America (2014)
A History Waiting to be Written: Ed Clark’s High-Spirited, Abstract Paintings, John Yau, Hyperallergic (2014)
The Long Sweep. A Conversation with Ed Clark about His 60-Plus Years in the Art World, Jeff Edwards, Art Pulse Magazine (2013)
Ed Clark: Masters of Abstract Expressionism, Jenna Bond-Louden, Ebony (2012)
Artist on Artist: Ron Bechet on Ed Clark, Ron Bechet, Pelican Bomb (2011)
Art News, Margaret Hawkins, (2003)
Quiet as it’s Kept Exhibition Catalogue, Vienna, Geoffrey Jacques (2002)
Ed Clark and the Abstract Shaped Canvas: A Memoir, Anita Feldman, Edward Clark: For the Sake of the Search (1997)
Ed Clark and I, Ted Joans, Edward Clark: for the Sake of the Search (1997)
Ed Alert: Chicago Roots Revived in Paschke, Clark Show, Garrett Holg, Chicago Sun Times (Sept. 28, 1997)
Ed Clark: The Fulfillment of a ‘Grand’ Talent, Corinne Robins (1997)
Explorations in the City of Light: African Americans in Paris, 1945-1965
Studio Museum in Harlem Catalogue, Valerie Mercer (1996)
Art Space Catalogue, Kellie Jones (1990)
Edward Clark: Directions, Judith Wilson, Art in America (1981)
Ed Clark: A Complex Identity, Anita Feldman, Studio Museum Retrospective Catalogue (1980)
Mary Schmidt-Campbell, Studio Museum Retrospective Catalogue (1980)
Edward Clark’s Luminous Expanses, April Kingsley, American Rag (1980)
Trois Americains Peintres et Noirs, Pierre Schneider, L’Express (1980)
Edward Clark: Still Sweeps Them off Their Feet, Benny Andrews, Encore America & Worldwide News (Dec. 4,1978)
Edward Clark: Push-Broom and Canvas, Art International, Corinne Robins (1973)
Lawrence Campbell, Art News (1972)
Paris Letter, R. C. Kennedy, Art International (1966)
Galerie R. Creuze Catalogue, Michel Conil-Lecoste, Paris, (May 1955)
Le Monde, Paris, Michel Conil-Lecoste (March 12, 1954)
VIDEO
Ed Clark Memorial @ the Whitney Museum
Without a Doubt Exhibition @ Hauser & Wirth – In Conversation with Mark Godfrey and Zoé Whitley Part 1 of 2 (2006)
Pérez Art Museum Miami: Ed Clark Discusses Pink Wave (2015)
The Mistake Room Artist Talks: Ed Clark (2014)
Ed Clark Retrospective Tour N’Namdi Contemporary Miami (2013)
A Brush with Success, Part 1 of 2 (2006)
A Brush with Success, Part 2 of 2 (2006)
Ed Clark Exhibit – N’Namdi Gallery
Contact Details: Artistedclark@gmail.com
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