On 25 May 2024, Turner Contemporary will present the first institutional exhibition in Europe dedicated to pioneering artist Ed Clark (1926-2019). The exhibition will unite paintings and works on paper from the 1940s to 2000s, including loans from The Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum and Detroit Institute of Arts, many of which have not been seen outside the USA.

Though late to receive international acclaim, Clark’s contributions to contemporary art were significant, notably through his innovative push broom technique and shaped canvases. Today, Clark is recognised as a groundbreaking figure within the New York School of Abstraction.

Born in New Orleans and raised in Chicago, Clark used credits from his G.I. Bill to attend the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago from 1947 to 1951. In 1952, he furthered his studies at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, where he would return to make work for the rest of his life. Clark’s experiences in the bohemian quarter of Montparnasse and, later, New York’s downtown scene deeply influenced his shift towards abstraction and working on a large scale. In 1956, he adopted the use of a 48-inch push broom to allow him to drive paint across the canvas with great force, a technique known as ‘the big sweep’ and exemplified in works such as Locomotion 1963. On his return to the US that year, Clark settled in New York, where he co-founded the influential Brata Gallery and created Untitled 1957, a seminal piece in the evolution of shaped painting and a highlight of the exhibition’s section devoted to Clark’s early canvases.

Travel and how a sense of place profoundly influenced Clark’s work will be at the heart of the exhibition. In 1971, visiting artist Jack Whitten in Crete proved transformative. As the Mediterranean light inspired a new colour palette, so it motivated him to seek out different lights and atmospheres, including in Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, China and Japan, as well as across the US. This theme is explored in depth throughout the exhibition with works on paper and paintings including Untitled 1970 – an example of his oval-shaped canvases first made in Vétheuil, France – Untitled from Louisiana Series 1978-80 and the dazzling Ife Rose 1974.

Set against the expansive North Sea, Turner Contemporary is uniquely placed to explore how, as one contemporary critic observed, Clark’s canvases registered his “sensitivity to the pigmentation of the earth and the colour of the skies”.

The exhibition will conclude with key examples of paintings from the mid-1980s to 2000s, a period when Clark brought new structures to his compositions with sweeping rainbows, tubes, and waves of colour.   Seen together, these works will underscore Clark’s enduring fascination with his material. In his own words, “The paint is the subject.”

Any Day Now: Toward a Black Aesthetic

Larry Neal (with introduction by Allie Biswas), 2024

The writer Allie Biswas, who selected the texts Neal wrote from 1964 to 1978 included here, introduces the volume, illuminating the rich and varied context in which he produced his work.

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Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris

Terrence Dixon, 1970

A short film which shares a glimpse into the life of one of the most important Black American writers, whose words still resonate powerfully today. Contemporary of Clark. Snapshot of Clark’s Paris. Available on MUBI.

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An Oral History with Edward Clark by Jack Whitten

BOMB magazine, 2014

Part of The Oral History Project, dedicated to collecting, developing, and preserving the stories of distinguished visual artists of the African Diaspora. Excerpts of audio recording included on Bloomberg app.

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