Edward Clark (artist)

Edward Clark was born May 6, 1926 in the Storyville section of New Orleans, Louisiana. He served during World War II in the US Air Corps, stationed in Guam.

Ed Clark studied from 1947 to 1951 in The Art Institute of Chicago with Helen Gardner and Louis Ritman. Under the GI Bill of Rights which financed the higher education of recruits, Clark took residence in Paris in 1952. He enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière where he studied until 1953.[5]

• 1951 YMCA, Chicago, Illinois
• 1955: Galerie Creuze, Paris, France

Edward Clark returned to New York City in 1956. He and Ted Jones (painter) were the first Afro-Americans that actively participated in the New York City Tenth Street galleries. Clark had his first one-man show in 1958 in the Brata Gallery. After the show he soon returned to Paris where he continued to show.

• 1966: Galerie Creuze, Paris, France
• 1969: American Embassy, Paris, France

Clark was the first Afro-American painter credited with working on a shaped canvas, an innovation that influenced contemporary art through the 1950s and 1960s. He was also known for his powerful brush stroke achieved with a push broom, large-scale canvases, and his vibrant use of color.[6] He arrived in Paris each summer and returned to New York City. He had number of well received exhibitions in both continents.

• 1971: Donald Judd's Loft, New York City
• 1972: Lehman College, New York City; 141 Prince Street Gallery, New York City; Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan
• 1974: South Houston, Gallery, New York City
• 1975: James Yu Gallery, New York City
• 1976: Sullivant Gallery, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
• 1981: Citicorp Center, New York City
• 1986: "Paris to New York, 1966–1986," G.R.N'Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
• 1989: Galerie Kasser-Bohbot, Hamburg, Germany
• 1990: FIAC, Grand Palais, Paris, France; G.R.N'Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
• 1991: "The Search for Freedom: African-American Abstraction 1945–1975," Kenkeleba Gallery, New York City
• 1996: "Explorations in the City of Lights: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945–1975," Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City
• 1997: "Sweeps & Views; Clark & Cowans," Rush Arts Gallery, New York City
• 2002: "Quiet as it's Kept," Christine Koenig Gallery, Vienna
• 2003: "From Paris to New York," Parish Gallery, Washington, D.C.
• 2007: "Ed Clark: For the Sake of the Search," Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, Florida
• 2009: "Masters for the First Family," Parish Gallery, Washington, D.C.
• 2011: "Ed Clark, The Search: A Sixty-Year Retrospective," the N'Namdi Center of Contemporary Art, Detroit
• 2012: "Louisiana Roots: Ed Clark Returns Home," Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans
• 2013: "Blues for Smoke," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
• 2014: "Unveiled," University of Maryland University College, Marlboro
• 2014: "Ed Clark: A Thousand Lights of Sun," The Mistake Room, Los Angeles
• 2014: "Ed Clark: Big Bang," Tilton Gallery, New York City
• 2015: "Ed Clark: Locomotion," N'Namdi Contemporary, Miami
• 2015: "Works on Paper", Greene Naftali, New York City
• 2016: "Ed Clark," N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit
• 2017: "Ed Clark: Paintings," Tilton Gallery, New York
• 2017: "Impulse," Pace Gallery, London
• 2017: "Ed Clark," Weiss Gallery, Berlin
• 2017: "Edward Clark: Paintings," Tilton Gallery, New York City
• 2018: "Ed Clark: A Survey," Mnuchin Gallery, New York City
• 2019: "Ed Clark," Hauser & Wirth, New York City

Ed Clark's paintings are included in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago; the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan; the Studio Museum in Harlem in New York City; the Metropolitan Museum in New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY; the California Afro-American Museum in Los Angeles, California, the Kresge Art Museum at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan; the James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland; the Museum of Solidarity in Titograd, Yugoslavia; the Museum of Modern Art in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; the Centro de Arte Moderno in Guadalajara, Mexico; and The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, among others.

In 2013, Clark was presented with the Art Institute of Chicago's Legends and Legacy Award, in recognition of what it called his "pioneering paintings."[7]

In 2014, upon viewing an exhibit of Clark's work at the Tilton Gallery, New York critic Barry Schwabsky wrote in The Nation, "He is, simply, one of the best living painters." He continued, "Paint as a literal, physical presence and as a trace of the artist's mental and physical activity becomes inseparable from the evocation of the glory of light."[8]

Reviewing a Museum of Modern Art show in 2017, New York Times critic Roberta Smith wrote that in a gallery that also included paintings by Willem de Kooning, Elizabeth Murray, Alma Thomas and others, she was most taken by "an effortless, thrilling abstraction full of floating light," an untitled work by Clark. She went on to say Clark has "devoted most of his long career to handling large brushes and gorgeous color with the matter-of-fact, quietly flamboyant flair seen here."[9]

Since 2019, Ed Clark is exclusively represented worldwide by the Swiss gallery Hauser & Wirth.[10]

• Kenkeleba Gallery (New York, N.Y.), The search for freedom : African American abstract painting 1945–1975 : May 19 – July 14, 1991, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York.
• Asake Bomani and Belvie Rooks, ‘’The Paris connections : African American artists in Paris’’ ISBN 0-936609-25-7
• Marika herskovic, American abstract expressionism of the 1950s : an illustrated survey : with artists' statements, artwork and biographies ISBN 0-9677994-1-4. p. 78–81

• Official website