Moroccan Series 1970

Ed Clark made this painting, Moroccan Series, with broad gestural marks in a palette of blue, black, and orange. I imagine him wrestling with this oval form, trying to resolve a kind of tension between the brushstrokes and the shape. What I find striking is the way the horizontal bands intersect with the oval, like a horizon line meeting the curve of the earth. I wonder if he was thinking about landscape, or maybe just the pure sensation of color and form. You can almost feel the push and pull of the paint, the way he layered the colors and let them bleed into each other. The physicality of the paint is also important, right? Is it thick and gloppy, or thin and watery? Either way, it adds another layer of meaning to the painting. Clark's work shares a sensibility with other painters who embrace abstraction as a way of expressing something beyond the visible world. It’s a reminder that painting is an ongoing conversation, a way of thinking and feeling through the act of making.