We live in the information age, and it certainly feels that an expert on anything and anywhere is only a click away. Sometimes, the implied certainty of a Google search implies that no stone is left unturned, that the all-knowing world of tech is the master key to every mystery. But history reveals itself in subtle ways, and the unsung heroes of past eras rise up righteously with proper care and attention. This is deservedly the case with one of the most influential artists of the New York School, Ed Clark, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 93, and is seeing a resurgence and reappraisal of his career as one of America’s most inventive abstract practitioners.
Clark was one of the last in a generation of painters who served in WWII and came home to witness an evolving and experimental moment in American arts. Where the WPA era was about Social Realism and figuration, the Nuclear era found many artists exploring with materials and application. Expanding the Image is a survey of Clark’s formative years, 1960—1980, mainly a time where Clark put down his paintbrush to explore working with a push broom to, “create broader strokes of paint.” This survey of 10 key paintings from this era is also a demonstration of the radical aura that abstract painting emanates in a gallery. “I began to believe that the real truth is in the stroke,” Clark once said. “For me, it is large, bold strokes that do not refer distinctly to seen nature. The paint is the subject. The motions of the strokes give the work life.” —Evan Pricco
