The Big Egg
- Created by
- Clark, Ed, American, 1926 - 2019
- Date
- 1968
- Medium
- mixed media on canvas
- Dimensions
- H x W: 64 1/4 × 81 1/2 in. (163.2 × 207 cm)
- Caption
- "Our eyes don’t see in rectangles. I was interested in an expanding image, and the best way to expand an image is the oval or ellipse. It seemed to me that the oval as a natural shape could best express movement and extended beyond the limits of the canvas." - Ed Clark
- The Big Egg, by abstract artist Ed Clark, is part of his Vétheuil series, paintings created in Vétheuil, France. Inspired by the shape of the ellipse, Clark originally began painting oval shapes on a traditional rectangular canvas. He later decided to transform the shape of the canvas into an oval itself. By doing so, he became the first American artist to create an oval canvas painting through the implementation of shaped stretcher bars.
- Description
- Oval-shaped abstract mixed media painting with large horizontal brush strokes and three fields of color. The canvas, shaped like a horizontal ellipse, is covered by three main fields of color: orange-red, at top, blue-green in the middle, and pink at bottom. There is a single streak of white partway across the orange field. Encroaching onto the orange field is a spray and spatter of blue-green paint. There is a darker orange shadow behind the spray. The blue-green field brightens gradually to a more blue-based color as it nears the bottom. At the very bottom of the painting is a narrow streak of pink.
- Place made
- Vétheuil, Val-d'Oise, France, Europe
- Portfolio/Series
- Vétheuil Series
- Classification
- Visual Arts
- Type
- acrylic paintings
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2013.125abc
- Restrictions & Rights
- © Ed Clark
- Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.