On January 14, 2021, the museum offered seven distinguished guests the virtual floor for seven minutes each to reflect on a work by the late David Park (1911–1960), the originator of Bay Area Figurative Art. Watch a recording of the event above to hear their insights, memories, and reflections.
Speakers:
Helen Park Bigelow, daughter of David Park; author of the memoir David Park, Painter: Nothing Held Back
Nancy Boas, author of the biography David Park: A Painter’s Life
Gretchen Diebenkorn Grant, daughter of artist Richard Diebenkorn
Corey Keller, curator of photography, SFMOMA; exhibition catalogue contributor
Francis Mill, artist; gallerist at Hackett Mill, representing the estate of David Park
Belinda Tate, executive director, Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts
Wayne Thiebaud, artist
Janet Bishop (moderator), Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator and Curator of Painting and Sculpture, SFMOMA; lead curator of David Park: A Retrospective
Organized by SFMOMA, David Park: A Retrospective was the first major museum exhibition of Park’s work in three decades. Further, it is the first to examine the full arc of the artist’s career — from his Social Realist efforts of the 1930s to his final works on paper in 1960 — with an emphasis on his lush, powerfully expressive canvases of the human experience from the 1950s.
