richard diebenkorn
woman with a newspaper
1960

#art
#artsky
#arthistory
#modernart
#expressionism
#california
#bayareafigurativemovement
#morningnews

Park decisively influenced the course of Bay Area art in his day by initiating a historic new direction in painting. The Bay Area Figurative movement is now considered the area's most singular contribution to 20th-century American art. Park moved to Los Angeles in 1928 to attend the Otis Art Institute, his only formal education, but dropped out after less than a year. In 1944, he began teaching at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) and adopted the then dominant mode of abstract expressionist painting. He never felt fully comfortable with this style, however, and in 1949 hauled all his abstract canvases to the Berkeley dump. "Art ought to be a troublesome thing," he would later declare. For him, painting representationally made for "much more troublesome pictures." Park became the first of several Bay Area artists (followed by Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff) to reconcile thick paint and vigorous brushstrokes with figurative subjects such as people engaged in contemporary, everyday life. Artist Robert Bechtle, recalling that mid-1950s moment in San Francisco said: "Most of the artists were very committed to abstraction at that point. Figurative work looked shockingly avant-garde." The late 1950s were extremely productive for Park. At the height of his national success, however, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He continued working until his death a few months later.

Two Bathers by David Park, 1958, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(SFMOMA) (San Francisco, CA)

#ArtHistory #ContemporaryArt #BayAreaFigurativeMovement

Large-scale abstract expressionist oil on canvas painting featuring a grey background with black and dark purple abstract markings

American painter Frank Lobdell (1921-2013) was a pioneer of the San Francisco Bay Area School of Abstract Expressionism and member of the Sausalito Six.

"Untitled" 1965 Oil on Canvas, 43-1/2 x 57

#bayareaabstractexpressionism
#bayareafigurativemovement #abstraction #americanpainter #franklobdell

David Park (American,1911–60)
"Woman at Piano", 1954, oil on canvas
Park was a pioneer of the Bay Area Figurative movement during the 50s.
#BayAreaFigurativeMovement