David Park had a way of making the human figures in his late pictures seem timeless in their solidity and placement yet fleeting in character; the more relaxed Park was with his paint, the sturdier they became. They might be the stand-up, schematic remnants of a golden age; they might be trees. Such figures were represented in this show of works on paper (1934–1960) by seven undated ink-wash drawings and a dozen gouaches from the series of gouaches Park did in 1960, within the last four months of his life. They exemplify Park at his most declarative and vibrant. The rest of the selection comprised

Although both David Park and Wayne Thiebaud would be termed figurative painters, the differences between them are more immediately apparent than their similarities. Thiebaud came into prominence a year or so after Park died. His position just outside the general Bay Area Figurative scheme is as peculiar as Park’s was within it; neither of them ever fit the penumbral psychologizing mold, as it developed, to the extent, say, that Elmer Bischoff preeminently did. Park was, and Thiebaud is, a painter of discrete images located in spaces charged by scrutiny, as well as by the manner of depiction.