Ed Clark shaped the oval and semicircular forms and horizontal bands of Untitled (New York Series) using a push broom, a technique he first developed more than three decades prior and that became a signature of his long artistic career. Clark relished how this unusual paint brush could “crush through things,” as he put it, tearing through previously laid gestures with its thick, abrasive bristles to leave deeply textured passages of paint in softly blended hues.  
 
Like many of his peers in the second generation of Abstract Expressionist artists, Clark served during World War II. After his time in the Air Force, he lived and worked in Paris, where he discovered a love for abstract art and passion for color and light. Later travels to Crete, Nigeria, Martinique, Cuba, Brazil, Morocco, China, Mexico, and other global destinations would further influence his palette, and the lyric, radiant hues and quietly dynamic composition of Untitled (New York Series) exemplify the inspiration from New York and Paris he brought to his paintings of the 1990s.