(France/American, 1926-2019)

Untitled (Paris Series), 1981, inscribed, signed, and dated lower right "Paris Clark '81", dry pigment on paper, 40 x 53 in.; artist's original painted wood frame, 41-1/4 x 54-1/8 x 1-1/8 in.

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist in New York, NY in 1981; Private Virginia Collection

Note: Ed Clark was an important figure in postwar American abstraction whose seven-decade career centered on color, gesture, and the physical process of painting. Born in New Orleans and raised in Chicago, Clark studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to Paris in 1952, where he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and encountered European modernism. He returned to New York in 1957 and became a charter member of the Brata Gallery, joining a generation of artists who were expanding the possibilities of abstract painting.

Clark was particularly experimental in his approach to the medium. In 1957, he began making shaped canvases, among the earliest examples of the form, and in 1958 introduced the use of a push broom to apply paint. Working on canvases laid directly on the floor, he created broad, sweeping passages of color that emphasized both gesture and movement. These techniques became characteristic of his work and allowed him to treat color and the physical act of painting as primary elements of the composition.

Although Clark is increasingly recognized within the history of African American art, his work occupies a broader place in postwar American painting. He developed an independent approach to abstraction that combined the gestural concerns of the New York School with the influence of his years in Paris and an increasingly sophisticated use of color. His work is represented in major collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Greater institutional and scholarly attention in recent decades has further established Clark's importance within the history of American abstraction.