1926-2019
Works in the Collection
Biography
Edward (Ed) Clark was born in New Orleans in 1926 and later moved to Baton Rouge and Chicago. He served in the US Air Corp during World War II, and after, under the GI Bill, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1947 to 1951. Clark then moved to Paris and studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In 1955, the Galerie Raymond Creuze mounted a solo exhibition of his work, and Clark was awarded the Prix d’Othon Friesz from the Musée des Arts Decoratifs of the Musée du Louvre. He returned to New York in 1956, and he and artist Ted Jones were the first African Americans to actively participate in the New York City Tenth Street galleries.
In both 1972 and 1985, Clark received the Master Award for Painting from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1998, he received the Joan Mitchell Award. His work can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil; and Centro de Arte Moderno de Guadalajara, Mexico; among others.