David Park, “Crowd of Seven” (1960), private collection, ©Estate of David Park, (courtesy Natalie Park Schutz, Helen Park Bigelow, and Hackett Mill, San Francisco)
Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, David Park: A Retrospective offers the opportunity to explore 30 years of the American artist’s evolving techniques, on view at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA) through March 15. During the final week of the show, the KIA will host a guest talk by the artist’s daughter as well as an emerging scholarship symposium the following day.
Park had a lasting impact on American art and artists, in part due to his surprising mid-century pivot back to figurative work in a time when abstract art was the trend.
On Thursday, March 12, Helen Park Bigelow, David Park’s daughter and author of David Park, Painter: Nothing Held Back, will present an evening talk at the KIA.
On Friday, March 13, scholars, collectors, and artists will gather for a symposium about the impact of the Bay Area Figurative Movement. Guests will enjoy keynotes from exhibition curator Janet Bishop, Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator and Curator of Painting and Sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and from artist Francis Mill, artist and co-owner of the Hackett Mill gallery in San Francisco, the exclusive representative of the Estate of David Park.
Additional presenters of new scholarship will include writer and professor John Seed, author of Disrupted Realism: Paintings for a Distracted World; Boston-based painter Kaitlin Thurlow; curator and art historian Matthew Weseley; and Marc Dombrosky, chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department of Southwestern Michigan College.
To register for the symposium or for more information on David Park: A Retrospective, visit kiarts.org.
David Park: A Retrospective continues at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (314 S Park Street, Kalamazoo, MI) through March 15. The exhibition is curated by Janet Bishop, Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator and Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA.
