Ed Clark is an African-American abstract expressionist painter. He was one of the first artists to play with shaped canvases in the 1950s. Two important features of his work besides his shaped canvases are his use of color and large brushstrokes. He pioneered using techniques such as a push broom and working on paper with dry pigment. I saw his work in the MoMA. I’m always drawn to abstract expressionist pieces because of the color and the feel of the paintings, however when I saw Clark’s piece up close I noticed how beautiful his surface was. He achieved smooth passages with color with a large paintbrush but also had thicker splotches of paint from splattering or not smoothing out the color entirely. It’s clear that he would sometimes put down more than one color at once so that they blended together when applied with a brush. I like how he works on a tan/raw canvas instead of a primed white one. This neutral background allows the colors to appear brighter and allows for the application of visible white paint. The large scale of his paintings allows for more freedom with his mark. His paintings inspire me to go back to abstract acrylic paintings.
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AuthorGrace Barron Archives
June 2018
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