Kentish Express Ashford & District - What's On
AT THE ART OF CREATIVITY
Kent’s coastal towns are becoming a haven for art lovers, with exciting exhibitions and stunning galleries popping up on every corner.
However, the county’s biggest art gallery, Turner Contemporary, is still leading the way.
This week, the seafront venue will introduce its summer exhibition, and it’s the first of its kind in Europe.
The exhibition will celebrate the work of expressionist trailblazer Ed Clark, who dedicated his life to finding new ways to use shapes, brush strokes and colour in his extraordinary paintings.
Turner Contemporary,
named after Romantic painter and printmaker JMW Turner who frequently visited the seaside town of Margate, will be home to the first institutional Ed Clark exhibition on European turf until September, showcasing some of the artist’s finest work throughout the summer.
Born in New Orleans in the 1920s, the African-american innovator began his creative career after leaving the military and enrolling in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1946.
Despite being one of the most inventive and influential artists of his time, most notably through his unique push broom technique and shaped canvases, his work was not recognised until several decades later.
Now, a number of pieces by the abstract artist will be proudly displayed in the seafront gallery, including works on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum and Detroit Institute of Arts.
This will be the first time that some of these loans have been displayed outside of the States.
During his lifetime, Clark achieved many milestones that now see him revered as a ground-breaking figure within American art.
In 1963, he co-founded the influential Brata Gallery in Manhattan's East Village and, 50 years later, in 2013, he was presented with the Art Institute of Chicago's Legends and Legacy Award.
The new exhibition will include Untitled 1970, an example of his oval-shaped canvases, Untitled from Louisiana Series 1978-80 and the Ife Rose 1974.
There will also be a selection of paintings from the mid-1980s to the 2000s where Clark used new compositions, such as sweeping rainbows and waves of colour, in his work. The Ed Clark exhibition will be at Turner Contemporary from Saturday, May 25 to Sunday, September 1. Entry is free and there’s no need to book.