Melvin Edwards (1937 - )

Melvin Edwards is a pioneer in the contemporary art scene. Edwards is best known for his welded sculptures and his belief in abstract art as a vehicle for social change. The artist was born in Houston, Texas, and raised in both Houston and Dayton, Ohio; He then settled in Los Angeles, where he still lives and works today. Throughout his childhood, Edwards balanced his interest in art and sports, and played football during high school and college. Ultimately, his interest in art was prioritized, and Edwards graduated with a BFA from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 1965. While beginning as a painter, Edwards then turn his focus to sculpture once he received critical acclaim for his Lynch Fragment series (1963 –present). Combining found industrial objects such as barbed wire, chains, and machine parts, Edwards welded dense, abstract forms that allude to the lived experiences and brutality faced by Black community. During his decades-long career, Edwards has produced sculptures that address complex themes such as the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and African culture.

In 1970, Edwards became one of the first African American sculptors to be featured in an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where he displayed a series of delicate, barbed wire sculptures. Melvin Edwards’ work is included in the renowned public collections of the Modern Museum of Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; among many others.

Yellow Way is an excellent example of a contrasting diversion from his early series. The bright yellow and flat geometrical shapes introduce light, optimism, and a sense of carefree, childlike playfulness, to this work. This medium-sized welded sculpture of painted steel is a striking geometric assembly of circles, rectangles, and squares, fully coated in crisp, canary yellow paint, the same shade Edwards applies to many of his painted sculptures. The exuberant monochromatic primary color adds visual dynamism to this work and plays a vital role in abstracting the materiality of the underlying steel structure. Edwards’ choice to thoroughly coat the surface imbues the work with a sense of cohesive and congruous spatial design, bringing attention to its form. The aesthetics and dynamics of sports thinking are evident in how he positions its elements relative to one another. Edwards has incorporated a yellow motif into a number of his painted sculptures, exploring the vibrant primary color’s visual dynamism in both large- and small-scale works. The contrast between the rhythmic curves of the circles and their bisected, adjacent rectangular forms amplifies the formal, yet playful nature of the sculpture. Edwards often takes a process-oriented approach, where a spark of idea enlightened his creation. He works on his sculptures without any particular plans; therefore, allowing the sculptures to speak of themselves.

Exhibition History

Recent Acquisitions, 11 September – 13 October 2007, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

African American Master Artists, 6 March – 26 April 2008, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

A Collaborative Effort, 1 May – 31 May 2008, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

What’s on the Wall II, 24 June – 5 July 2008, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

The Summer Exhibition, 8 July – 30 August 2008, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Selections From the Collection, 2 December 2009 – 10 January 2010, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Preview for the National Black Fine Art Show, 15 January – 10 February 2009, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Preview of US Art Fair, 13 September – 20 September 2011, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Selections from the Collection, 29 September – 5 November 2011, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Selections from the Collection, 15 April – 29 May 2021, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Masters of Sculpture, 12 May – 31 August 2022, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Literature

Bill Hodges Gallery. Norman W. Lewis, et al. New York, 2017. p. 49

Bill

Eldzier Cortor (1916 - 2015)

Eldzier Cortor, painter and printmaker, was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1916. As the Great Migration swept northward, the Cortor family relocated to Chicago soon after Eldzier was born, seeking employment in the city's industrial manufacturing centers. Cortor studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago during the 1930s under Laszlo Moholy-Nagy where he developed an interest in painting, particularly techniques associated with Surrealism. However, African art, which he studied under the tutelage of the Art Institute’s Kathleen Blackshear, proved to be a principle influence on the tenor of his work.

Cortor’s art advocated for a dignified view of African-American culture. His portraits of Black life mixed the realism of domestic scenes with a sense of fantasy through distorted perspectives. His depictions of African-American women in particular defined his practice, as many of his paintings and drawings depict silhouettes of Black figures with both African and Surrealist impulses. In the 1940s, Cortor worked with the Works Progress Administration in his South Chicago community, traveled and taught through the Caribbean on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and worked with the Gullah communities in coastal Georgia and South Carolina. The latter experience influenced a practice that championed and upheld the African roots of African American culture.

In recent years, the artist's work has become more renowned. In 2002, his solo show Eldzier Cortor: Master Printmaker was exhibited at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. In 2006, his career as a master printmaker and draftsman was celebrated in the exhibition Black Spirit: Work on Paper by Eldzier Cortor organized by the Indiana University Art Museum. Cortor's works are held in the collections of Howard University, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and The Art Institute of Chicago, among others.

Wearing a draped rosy pink dress, the woman in the scene holds her straw hat slightly while looking outside the door, desiring to avoid the scorching sun. Tropical fruits, vases, and seashells are scattered around; their bright and decorative appearances alleviate the scene. With the elongated torso and elegant posture of the lady, a trace of 19th-century European royal paintings is mirrored in this work. Eldzier Cortor’s approach of shaping accurate depictions of black living conditions as graceful and dignified with distorted perspective is epitomized by this oil on canvas, Marche Assemblage III. Known for his elongated nude figures in intimate settings, Cortor skillfully incorporates the cylindrical and lyrical quality that was a tribute to traditional African sculptures into the framework of European art, which adds the quality of surrealism to the work. Believing black women are the carriers of black culture, Cortor spent the majority of his career portraying black females in ways that represented their strength and beauty. Through his new interpretation of black physiognomy, which was noted as a basis for scientific racism in the 19th century, he overturned the old prejudicial understanding and invented a novel artistic style that meticulously illustrated the glamour and elegance of African American women.

Provenance

Private Collection, New Jersey Collection of Corrine Jennings Faith Grobman Collection, New Jersey Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Exhibition History

Decades of Acquisitions: Works on Paper from the Collection, 24 February – 30 April, 2022 Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Figuratively Speaking, 2 March – 11 May 2023, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Marché Assemblage III, ca. 1985

Oil on Canvas

20 x 17 ½ in. (50.8 x 44.5 cm)

Signed, Lower Right: E. Cortor

Titled, Signed, and Inscribed on Reverse: “Marché/Assemblage III” Eldzier Cortor Oil Canvas