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Lot Essay
While the New York art community of the 1950's was dominated largely by the momentum of the Abstract Expressionists, a small group of California painters led by David Park returned to a more figurative style of painting known as the "Bay Area Figurative Art Movement." Along with his students, Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, David Park challenged himself to apply the painterly techniques learned from abstract expressionism to a more recognizable subject matter derived from "life not art."
The present painting, Woman with Teacup is a brilliant example of the freshness and vitality achieved by artists working within the tensions of these two opposing techniques. Here the large contraposed blocks of umber and orange that make up the woman's face in juxtaposition with a hastily thrown drip of bright orange are evocative of the techniques of Abstract Expressionists such as Hans Hofmann. At the same time, however, they are clearly figural representations of a cheek, a jawbone and nose. Park's sweeping gestures of thick, viscous green, black, white and blue paint throughout the canvas in one way seem evidence of the artist's simple act of celebrating his artistic process, comparable to that of any of the nonrepresentational gesture painters of the day. Again however, they further serve to block out areas of contrast between figure and background; and the interplay of light and shadow on the table.
Painted just two years before the artist's early death at the age of 49, the present work is a testimony to David Park's determination to maintain his own artistic independence. He once said, "As you grow older, it dawns on you that you are yourself--that your job is not to force yourself into a style, but to do what you want."
The present painting, Woman with Teacup is a brilliant example of the freshness and vitality achieved by artists working within the tensions of these two opposing techniques. Here the large contraposed blocks of umber and orange that make up the woman's face in juxtaposition with a hastily thrown drip of bright orange are evocative of the techniques of Abstract Expressionists such as Hans Hofmann. At the same time, however, they are clearly figural representations of a cheek, a jawbone and nose. Park's sweeping gestures of thick, viscous green, black, white and blue paint throughout the canvas in one way seem evidence of the artist's simple act of celebrating his artistic process, comparable to that of any of the nonrepresentational gesture painters of the day. Again however, they further serve to block out areas of contrast between figure and background; and the interplay of light and shadow on the table.
Painted just two years before the artist's early death at the age of 49, the present work is a testimony to David Park's determination to maintain his own artistic independence. He once said, "As you grow older, it dawns on you that you are yourself--that your job is not to force yourself into a style, but to do what you want."