Melvin Edwards (b. 1937)
The Nasher Sculpture Center presents the first
retrospective in more than 20 years of the
renowned American sculptor, Melvin Edwards,
including never-before exhibited works
DALLAS, Texas (October 20, 2014) –The Nasher Sculpture Center announces the exhibition
Melvin Edwards: Five Decades, a retrospective of the
renowned American sculptor, January 31-May 10,
2015. Melvin Edwards’s career spans crucial periods of
upheaval and change in American culture and society,
and his sculpture provides a critical bridge between
modernist techniques and materials and contemporary
approaches to the art object. In 1988, New York
Times critic Michael Brenson lauded Edwards as “one
of the best American sculptors… [and] one of the least
known.” Over the past five decades, Edwards has
produced a remarkable body of work redefining the
modernist tradition of welded sculpture.
“Exhibiting the work of Melvin Edwards is a tremendous
privilege for the Nasher,” says Director Jeremy Strick.
“His expansive, decades long sculptural practice in
welded steel fuses vital Modernist traditions with deeply
held personal and social convictions, and the results are
uniquely powerful artistic responses to some of the most
volatile and pivotal events of our times. In addition to its
historical and political relevance, Edwards’s work also
has important connections with the radical
experimentation and international outlook of
welded steel fuses vital Modernist traditions with deeply
held personal and social convictions, and the results are
uniquely powerful artistic responses to some of the most
volatile and pivotal events of our times. In addition to its
historical and political relevance, Edwards’s work also
has important connections with the radical
experimentation and international outlook of
contemporary art, positioning him as an artist of rare
versatility and reach.”
versatility and reach.”
Melvin Edwards: Five Decades bears witness to
Edwards’s profound commitment, from the very
beginning of his career, to an art that is both abstract
and deeply engaged with meaning and expression. A
truly international artist well before the advent of
today’s global art world, Edwards has brought his
experiences of other cultures and languages,
particularly those of Africa, into his work, to explore
the varied ways that art can forge bonds of connection
and kinship. He is best known for his Lynch Fragments,
an ongoing series of small-scale reliefs begun in Los
Edwards’s profound commitment, from the very
beginning of his career, to an art that is both abstract
and deeply engaged with meaning and expression. A
truly international artist well before the advent of
today’s global art world, Edwards has brought his
experiences of other cultures and languages,
particularly those of Africa, into his work, to explore
the varied ways that art can forge bonds of connection
and kinship. He is best known for his Lynch Fragments,
an ongoing series of small-scale reliefs begun in Los
Angeles in the early 1960s and born out of the social
and political turmoil of the civil rights movement.
Incorporating tools and other familiar objects, such as
chains, locks, and ax heads, Edwards’s Lynch Fragments
are abstract yet evocative, summoning a range of artistic,
cultural, and historical references.
Melvin Edwards: Five Decades will feature a broad
selection of Lynch Fragments, including early
manifestations, which spoke to racial tensions and political
and cultural struggles of the 1960s; Edwards’s return to
the series in the early 1970s, during the Vietnam War; and
a group from 1978 to the present, exploring memory,
the series in the early 1970s, during the Vietnam War; and
a group from 1978 to the present, exploring memory,
history, and African and African American culture.
***
For more information, visit www.NasherSculptureCenter.org.
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