A painting composed of juxtaposed red, black, yellow, blue, and gray geometric shapes.

Summer MacDowell

Artist Charlotte Park (American, 1918 - 2010)

Date1955

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsCanvas: 16 × 20 inches (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Framed: 16 3/4 × 20 3/4 × 1 3/8 inches (42.5 × 52.7 × 3.5 cm)

Credit LineGift of Dwight H. and Susie Emanuelson.

Object number2006.43.1

On View

Not on view

Copyright© Private Collection. The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextA graduate of the Yale School of Fine Art in Connecticut, Charlotte Park evolved a singular vocabulary of emblematic shapes set within a gestural, abstract expressionist style, producing animated works that occasionally evoke nature. Unfortunately, Parks’ important contribution to the Abstract Expressionist movement during its early years has only recently been acknowledged, a scenario shared by many women artists working in midcentury American abstraction. Overshadowed by the attention given to the work of her husband, James Brooks, Park kept a low profile over the course of her career, while painting some of the strongest and most brilliantly colored canvases of her time. Her art is a strong case against the idea prevalent from the 1950s onward that women were incapable of the muscularity and confidence necessary to be action painters. Park and Brooks were neighbors and friends of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner in East Hampton.

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