The thickly impastoed canvases of first generation Abstract Expressionist Charlotte Park (1918-2010) are full of gestural loops and large swaths of color. A 1939 graduate of the Yale School of Fine Art, Park and her husband, James Brooks, were in the social circle of fellow Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner; they may have been among the quietest in the rowdy bunch that haunted New York’s downtown Cedar Tavern. Park painted in black and white at the beginning of her career, paring her palette down to a monochrome in works such as Untitled (50-35) (ca. 1950) in order to focus on form. She introduced color to her increasingly geometric canvases around the time of her first solo exhibition, held at Tanager Gallery in 1957. Though not recognized as a significant Abstract Expressionist artist during her lifetime, Park gained long overdue recognition after a critically acclaimed solo exhibition in 2010 at Spanierman Modern gallery.