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Exhibition

David Park

A Retrospective
October 4, 2020–January 18, 2021
Floor 4

At the age of thirty-eight, David Park (1911–1960) abandoned a carload of his abstract expressionist canvases at the city dump and started painting “pictures” — a radical decision that led to the development of Bay Area Figurative Art. Organized by SFMOMA, this exhibition comprises 127 paintings and works on paper. It is the first major museum exhibition of Park’s work in three decades and the first to examine the full arc of his career, from his tightly controlled paintings from the 1930s to his final works on paper from 1960. The heart of the show is a rich selection of the 1950s Bay Area Figurative canvases for which he is best known — boldly executed compositions featuring musicians, domestic and vernacular scenes, portraits, boaters, and bathers. The works reveal an artist deeply connected to human experience and at the peak of his powers, reveling in the expressive and sensuous qualities of pure paint.

Exhibition Preview

David Park, Mother and Child, 1935; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, bequest of Lydia Park Moore and Roy Moore; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco; photo: Katherine du Tiel
David Park, Rehearsal, ca. 1949–50; Oakland Museum of California, gift of the Anonymous Donor Program of the American Federation of Arts; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco
David Park, Kids on Bikes, 1950; Myron Kunin Collection; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco
David Park, Brush and Comb, 1956; collection of Gretchen and John Berggruen; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco
David Park, Studio Sink, 1956; private collection; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco; photo: JKA Photography
David Park, Head of Lydia, ca. 1956; collection of Michael Hackett-Hale; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco; photo: Ben Cressy
David Park, Interior, 1957; private collection; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco; photo: Joshua Nefsky
David Park, Four Men, 1958; Whitney Museum of American Art, purchase, with funds from an anonymous donor; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco
David Park, Couple, 1959; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Partial gift of the Morgan Flagg Family Foundation; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco
David Park, The Cellist, 1959; Portland Art Museum, purchased with funds given anonymously; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco
David Park, Head, 1960; private collection; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco; photo: JKA Photography
David Park, Crowd of Seven, 1960; private collection; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco

David Park: A Retrospective Audio Guide

Learn more about Park — the artist and the person — in this special audio guide.
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Exhibition Catalogue

This generously illustrated volume accompanies the first major museum exhibition in more than thirty years devoted to the powerfully expressive work of David Park (1911–1960), best known as the pioneer of Bay Area Figurative Art.
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Major support for David Park: A Retrospective is provided by Doris Fisher, Patricia W. Fitzpatrick in honor of Neal Benezra, Janet and Clint Reilly, and anonymous donors.

Generous support is provided by Jean and James E. Douglas, Jr., Mary J. Elmore, Christine and Pierre Lamond, the Stuart G. Moldaw Public Program and Exhibition Fund, Susan and Bill Oberndorf, the Bernard and Barbro Osher Exhibition Fund, Lynn and Edward Poole, the Thomas Weisel Family, Pat Wilson, and Anita and Ronald Wornick.

Meaningful support is provided by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.

Additional support is provided by Robert and Daphne Bransten, Susan A. Engs, Laurie and Jim Ghielmetti, and Helyn Goldenberg and Michael Ayer.

Header image: David Park, Couple, 1959; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Partial gift of the Morgan Flagg Family Foundation; © Estate of David Park; courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco