Ed Clark - Phillips x Artsy Summer School New York Thursday, June 27, 2019 | Phillips

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  • Description

    "Edward Clark by Jack Whitten," BOMB MAGAZINE, June 2, 2014

    Jack Whitten: I still see you are reluctant to talk about your work. Why do you find it so difficult?

    Ed Clark: It’s because, when you’re thinking a painting, it’s not about English, French or anything. An abstract painting is different than if you’re painting a portrait, the cheeks and the lips. An abstract painting, how do you talk about it? Obviously, there’s sophisticated people here in New York, they know. But you take some educated people and they just say, “Well, what’s that?” They don’t understand it. But most people, when they look at a work, they say it looks powerful, or present, or original. When I’m painting, I’m not thinking about that. I know who I am.

  • Provenance

    Private Collection, New York

  • Artist Biography

    Ed Clark

    American • 1926 - 2019

    Born in pre-Civil Rights era New Orleans, Clark joined the Air Force at age 17 and served in Guam during World War II. Afterwards, he utilized the GI Bill by enrolling in the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and later the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Perceiving that his race would impact the future of his career less in France than in the United States – he noted that “The French never put race on ID cards”– Clark decided to reside in Paris even after the expiration of his GI bill before settling in New York in the late 1950s.

    Though associated with Abstract Expressionism, Ed Clark continuously and audaciously transformed his artistic language over a career spanning six decades. His experiments with color, form, and shaped canvas are a testament to his restless inventiveness, a quality inspired by the cultures of the many places he’s resided in and traveled to, including New York, Paris, Morocco, Brazil, Greece, Yucatan, Martinique, Nigeria, and China. From his figurative works to his egg-shaped abstract pieces, Clark has always imbued his art with a delicate balance of colorful energy and peaceful tranquility.

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2

Untitled

signed and dated "Clark 81" lower right
pastel and graphite on paper
38 x 50 in. (96.5 x 127 cm.)
Executed in 1981.

Estimate
$30,000 - 50,000 

Sold for $30,000

Contact Specialist

Katherine Lukacher
Associate Specialist, Head of Online Sales
+1 212 940 1215
klukacher@phillips.com

Phillips x Artsy Summer School

Online Auction 27 June - 10 July 2019