Ed Clark

At the vanguard of abstract expressionism, Ed Clark expanded the traditional process of painting by using brooms and rags as brushes and creating large shaped canvases. Clark’s career of more than six decades stretched between North America and Europe. An alumnus of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Clark left for Paris in 1952 to study at L’Académie de la Grande Chaumière. After his return to New York in 1956, he began to use a household broom to paint across unprimed canvas placed on the floor. Embracing the physical movements and spontaneity of painting with brooms and rags, Clark created swiftly executed strokes. Untitled (1957) part of the collection of the Art Institute, is a pivotal example of how Clark shifted the paradigm of painting, moving from the traditional square or rectangular frame to myriad angular shapes.

Taos (1982) is an extension of this dynamic direction in his work and part of a series inspired by the artist’s sojourn in the American Southwest. Bands of graduated color stretch horizontally across the surface of the canvas. The center of the composition is anchored by a streak of white paint, in contrast to the warm brown, pink, and orange tones that render it a horizon in a seemingly primordial landscape. The artist described the bold brushstrokes produced by the broom as bearers of “energy and speed.” Included in the paint are rough particles, possibly sand, that rise from the surface and imbue the work with a grainy texture. Echoing the bits of bare canvas that radiate from underneath the washes of color, Taos captures light and space with abstract markings that convey impulse and fleeting action.