In Summer 2024, Turner presented the first institutional exhibition in Europe dedicated to pioneering artist Ed Clark (1926-2019).
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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.
The exhibition united 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 had never been seen outside the USA.
‘His pioneering work from the 1950s, marked using unconventional tools like the push broom, has redefined American abstraction.’
A Round Table discussion on Ed Clark
Featuring writer Allie Biswas, paintings conservator Amiel Clarke, Curator Emma Lewis, and Artist Shawanda Corbett
About the artist
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.
In 1971, his visit to 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.
He continued to explore paint and colour up until the 2000s, bringing new structures to his compositions with sweeping rainbows, tubes, and waves of colour. These works underscore Clark’s enduring fascination with his material. In his own words, “The paint is the subject."
In the press
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