The development of deformation and shape coexistence in the vicinity of doubly magic 48 Ca, related to the weakening of the N = 28 shell closure, was addressed in a low-energy Coulomb excitation experiment using a radioactive 44 Ar beam from the SPIRAL facility at GANIL. 44 Ar and neighboring nuclei using two different approaches: the angular momentum projected generator coordinate method considering axial quadrupole deformations and a five-dimensional approach including the triaxial degree of freedom. The experimental values and new calculations are furthermore compared to shell-model calculations and to relativistic mean-field calculations. The new results give insight into the weakening of the N = 28 shell closure and the development of deformation in this neutron-rich region of the nuclear chart.