Standing Nudes

In 1960, the last year of his life, Bay Area figurative painter David Park made some of his most powerful and inspired paintings. His frail health kept him from the rigors of large-scale painting in these years, and he moved to the smaller, more intimate medium of gouache on paper. He focused on the studio nude in this final and seminal series. The present example, Standing Nudes, 1960 is a significant example of the period. His brute figures are devoid of pictorial context; they are at one with the spare but fiercely expressive strokes that seem to give them life. "Light is his catalyst; it dissolves and recreates. It cuts, shapes and contours within his figures which are surprising, but plausible; this... illumination gives them an uncanny electric charge" (P. Mills, Berkeley, University of California, David Park Memorial Exhibition: The University Years 1955-1960).