David Park: A Painter's Life

by Nancy Boas

David Park (1911–1960), transplanted Bostonian turned ground-breaking West Coast painter, led the way in creating what became known as Bay Area Figurative Art—a daring move during the post-World War II years when abstract expressionism held sway. In this beautifully illustrated biography, compiled from comprehensive and sweeping interviews, Nancy Boas traces Park’s resolute search for a new kind of figuration, one that would penetrate abstract expressionism’s thickly layered surfaces and infuse them with human presence. Boas changes our understanding of Park as a painter, highlighting his strong influence on Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, and other artists at the California School of Fine Arts and the University of California, Berkeley. She plunges us into the lively 1940s and 1950s Bay Area art scene, pointing to Park’s work as a bold alternative to the abstractions of Clyfford Still. As the book deepens our admiration for Park’s figurative paintings, it affirms his stature as a major figure in American art, one who spurred the figurative impulse across the United States and abroad.

Genres: Art, Biography

368 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 2012

Reviews

[David Ambrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well-written and well-researched account of the life of David Park, who has recently become one of my favorite artists. Having educated myself about art largely in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, but also at other museums on the east coast, I had not been very exposed to Park's work (although I do recall seeing a few works). But having recently spent some time in museums in Los Angeles recently I saw a number of his late paintings and came to like his work very much.

The book goes through his life and development as an artist, with early representational works, a period of abstraction which Park repudiated with a trip to the dump to rid himself of those canvases, and his return to representational art focusing on the human figure (although now informed by his abstract phase). There is particular attention paid to the fact that representational and figure painting was out of vogue for a time as abstraction was all the rage, so to speak.

If I had one criticism it would be that some other painters have dealt with similar problems in being accepted, and made similar journeys in and out of abstraction, and these are only lightly touched on in the book. It is mentioned that Willem de Kooning also famously moved to figure painting from pure abstraction but it is not really discussed whether this was important to Park's work gaining greater acceptance. It is mentioned that John Sloan's widow, Helen Farr Sloan, thought that Park would have liked to ask her late husband for advice, but this could have been made more relevant by saying something about John Sloan's struggles for acceptance in the art world and against dominant modes of modern art a generation or two previously. This is minor criticism, though, and overall this is an excellent book about a great and important painter.

[Ed Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quite interesting biography.

Park, if you are not familiar with him, went in a diametrically opposite direction to prevailing critical and artistic consensus, to follow his own instincts, by leaving behind abstraction in the heyday of Abstract Expressionism and choosing to work in a figurative style. Park was marked by a kind of integrity that would not allow him to be anyone else but himself. His approach to figuration brought in a highly raw, expressive and painterly approach, which bears the mark of his earlier abstract manner. Initially this was deeply shocking to his friends and fellow painters, Elmer Bischoff and Richard Diebenkorn. Soon, they too began to work in an abstract expressive figurative manner emphasizing a contemporary California subject matter, a style or tendency that is often described as "San Francisco Bay Area Figurative". Not truly traditional, it incorporated many aspects of Abstract Expressionism, as well as the early modernism of the Fauves and Expressionists.

He died tragically at a very early age, of lung cancer, almost certainly attributable to chain smoking, and probably exacerbated while painting by contaminating his cigarettes with lead white pigment from his hands.

Both Bischoff and Diebenkorn returned to abstraction later in life, the latter becoming famous for the hundred odd paintings of the monumental "Ocean Park" series. David Park was not allowed to have the time to either accept or reject or explore.

Incidentally, I heard Nancy Boas speak (she signed my copy). In the audience, we actually had David Park's daughter who spoke a lot about her father with great affection, admiration, and respect. We also had a student of his.

[Tony Gualtieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A biography of Park's artistic career, which emphasizes his rivalry with Clyfford Still. Park comes across as a decent human being with great integrity whose artist struggles culminated in the bold, figurative work for which he is best known. A great recommendation from Kevin Killian's recently published collection of Amazon reviews.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book!! Happy to understand more about him and his art. He was a man who stood firm in his convictions and vision. If you’re into art, art history, painting, Diebenkorn, abstract painting, I think you’ll dig it too.

[Marta Sorenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

okay kinda long, but im into it. this book helped me learn about figurative art and embrace it

[Katherine Degn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great. Fascinating.

[Jorge Gamboa · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best artist biographies out there