Ed Clark: The Big Sweep; Chronicles of a Life: 1926– 2019
Book photography: Courtesy Hauser & Wirth Publishers
Hauser & Wirth Publishers’ published a new book on Ed Clark—the definitive publication on the artist— explores his role in the pivotal developments of 20th-century abstract painting
It was released on 7 September, accompanying a solo exhibition by the artist at Hauser & Wirth’s New York location on 22nd Street.
Clark’s experimentations and breakthroughs were key advancements in the story of modern and contemporary art: in the late 1950s he was the first American artist credited with creating a shaped canvas, an innovation that continues to reverberate today; and his revolutionary embrace of the common push broom as a paintbrush—a technique he first tried in Paris in 1956 and that, along with the shaped canvas, would come to define his practice—extended the language of American abstraction. Defying the discreet categories of gestural and hard-edged abstraction, Clark produced a unique form of expressionism. This book, taking its title from the name he gave to his push broom technique, presents rich illustrations that survey Clark’s most important works alongside archival images of the artist at work and portraits of him with his finished works. A Swiss-bound hardcover, the book offers vivid double-page reproductions of his work and striking detail images, enabling viewers to experience the seductive materiality of his paint.
Book photography: Courtesy Hauser & Wirth Publishers
‘Ed Clark: The Big Sweep’ privileges Clark’s first-hand experience through interviews and other archival material, using the unique capacity of the artist’s voice and personal testimony to evoke the texture of lived experience. Placing the artist’s own telling of his story in dialogue with excerpts from out-of-print monographs, contemporaneous press and reprinted texts, the book provides an overview of the story of Clark’s life and work and—despite the belated recognition of his achievements—ultimately stakes a definitive claim to his place in the historical record.
‘This is the essence of Ed Clark’s gestural abstraction; each painting is a summation of everything, his entire life, up to a particular moment. Each work has never been made before and will never be made again.’ —Kellie Jones, 1990
‘The moment I take the broom that gives a different kind of energy. . . . When I get into painting like that, you don’t get into something you understand, you just let it go.’
—Ed Clark, 2016
Book photography: Courtesy Hauser & Wirth Publishers
About Hauser & Wirth Publishers
In keeping with Hauser & Wirth’s artist-centric vision, Hauser & Wirth Publishers works to bring readers into the universe of artists and behind the scenes of their practices. From publishing artists’ writings and exceptional exhibition-related books to commissioning new scholarship and pursuing the highest levels of craft in design and bookmaking, Hauser & Wirth Publishers creates vital, lasting records of artists’ work and ideas, forging critical gateways to the cultural discourse they inspire.
Through its Oral History Initiative, Hauser & Wirth Publishers is building an enduring record of artists’ voices for future generations. Additionally, the imprint publishes Ursula magazine, a bi-annual print and digital periodical that features essays, profiles, interviews, original portfolios, films and photography by thought-provoking writers and artists from around the world.
Across its dedicated bookstores in the U.S. and Europe, Hauser & Wirth Publishers complements and amplifies the artist’s voice by hosting a robust slate of special programs, including talks, panels, readings and learning initiatives that engage a variety of audiences and communities.
Publishing has been a cornerstone of Hauser & Wirth’s activity since the gallery’s founding in 1992. Its publishing activities steadily flourished through partnerships with imprints such as Hatje Cantz, JRP|Ringier, Snoeck, Steidl, Thames & Hudson, and Yale University Press before the establishment of Hauser & Wirth Publishers, with headquarters in New York and Zurich.
Hauser & Wirth Publishers’ titles are distributed worldwide via Distributed Art Publishers, Interart and Buchhandlung Walther König.
For more information about this title or other publications from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, please visit their site. For more information about the latest exhibition of Ed’s artwork at the gallery’s New York location, it can be found here. For more information about the exhibits at the gallery, please visit Hauser & Wirth site. Also, follow the gallery on Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube for more updates on this exhibit.
