David Park correspondence with Howard and Dorothy Baker, 1937-1952
Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Park, David, 1911-1960
- Abstract:
- The friendship of Howard and Dorothy Baker, Mildred and Bertrand Bronson and Lydia and David Park was intimate, stimulating and youthful. Baker was Yvor Winter's protégé, and a genius. Dorothy was writing or had just published YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN, and had begun to reveal her lesbian inclinations. Bertrand Bronson was a Rhodes scholar and the finest English Litetature intelligence ever at Berkeley. All were Young at this time, and all recombined for a period in Cambridge (early on).
- Extent:
- 3 folders
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Includes letters from both David and Lydia (Deedie) Park, and recipients include Bertrand and Mildred Bronson in addition to the Bakers.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Born in Boston, Mass., David Park studied at The Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1928. Upon moving to the San Francisco Bay area, Park first taught at the California School of Fine Arts, 1944-52, and then at the University of California at Berkeley from 1955-60. A figure painter in the 1930s and `40s, Park began experimenting with Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, greatly influenced by the works of Clifford Still and Mark Rothko. Park then reconsidered his earlier interest in the human form, now through an Expressionist eye, and became one of the foremost proponents of the New Figurative movement in the Bay Area. He died of cancer in 1960.
- Acquisition information:
- Purchased, 2001.
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
-
Department of Special Collections, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6004, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022