Melvin Edwards Liberation and Remembrance

BY JOAN MARTER

Homage to the Poet Léon Gontran Damas, 1978–81. Steel,

5 elements, dimensions variable. © 2016 MELVIN EDWARDS/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY, COURTESY ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES, NY Melvin Edwards has been welding Above: Installation view of “Melvin Edwards,” 2014. Below: Justice for Tropic-Ana (dedicated to Ana a major revelation about racial tensions. concept of creating shelter and transform- for more than five decades and bearing wit- Mendieta), 1986. Welded steel, 9.75 x 7.5 x 8.13 in. Edwards studied at the County ing space became an essential aspect of ness to the continuing history of race rela- Art Institute (currently Otis Art Institute of his worldview. While Edwards does not tions in the . His recent works the Parsons School of Design) and gradu- believe that art can change the world, he include incisive new examples of his iconic ated from the University of Southern Cali- envisions that art, particularly public art, “Lynch Fragments” series and monumen- fornia in 1965. For the next two years, he can be a positive force. tal public projects installed in various loca- taught at Chouinard Art Institute (now After moving to City in 1967, tions, including Japan, , Cuba, and California Institute of the Arts). From his Edwards exhibited at the Studio Museum the U.S. Edwards’s interest in architecture childhood fashioning of tomahawks to his in . Soon after, he joined with William and his commitment to abstraction as a discovery that his ancestry included an T. Williams, Billy Rose, and Guy Ciarcia to meaningful form of expression are mani- African blacksmith working as a slave in make wall paintings in Harlem. The Smoke - fest in his metal , large and small colonial America, Edwards has always house collective used brightly colored geo- alike. A major retrospective, organized sought to “understand forms.” He consid- metric forms to transform environments. by the Nasher Sculpture Center in and ers himself “largely self-taught as a per- In 1970, Edwards was the first African Ame r - recently on view at the Zimmerli Art Museum son.”1 African American sculptor David Ham- i can sculptor to have a solo exhibition at at , afforded an oppor- mons told an interviewer: “I was influ- the Whitney Museum of American Art. tunity to consider how the later works evince enced in a way by Mel Edwards’s work. He Edwards devoted himself to the history the culmination of a creative life that has had a show at the Whitney in 1970 where of racial interactions and the visual cul- produced a powerful body of work and taken he used a lot of chains and wires. That was ture of Third World countries, which resulted Edwards to far-flung locations. the first abstract piece of art that I saw in travel to Brazil, Morocco, , , These more recent works have links to that had cultural value in it for black peo- , Mexico, and Cuba. With a spe- major themes in Edwards’s career. Many ple. I couldn’t believe that piece when I cial devotion to , which he first vis- are dedicated to artists known to him, such saw it because I didn’t think you could ited in 1970, he continues to spend months as Justice for Tropic-Ana (1986)—dedicated make abstract art with a message.”2 every year working in Senegal. Some of to Cuban artist Ana Mendieta—while oth- Edwards’s works have always been about the largest “Lynch Fragments” were made ers celebrate the lives of renowned African conveying a message. From the 1960s on, in Africa. Americans, and a few examples are devoted he wished to counter the predominant for- From the first examples to the current to civil rights events. The “Lynch Fragments” malism of art discourse. He notes, “I series of welded constructions that he are the predecessors of a remarkable group encountered the formalist rhetoric that was began in 1978, the “Lynch Fragments” have of large-scale works on public sites. Edwards being taught about art. I later realized that been modest in size, featuring recogniza- has returned repeatedly to the “Lynch Frag - the history of art was contrary to that rheto- ble objects and instruments associated Iraq, 2003. Welded steel, 13 x 7 x 7 in. ments” throughout his career. The latest ric. All of the history of art showed that with sculpture production that could also examples are larger, more varied in their one could make art out of or about any- serve as potential weapons—chains, knives, to lynching, he was certainly aware of its elements, and more confrontational. thing.”3 He considers geometric forms part and railroad spikes. The first “Lynch Frag- history and the struggle for civil rights. He Born and raised in , Texas, in a of our visual experience and often incor- ments” suggest oppression. Recent exam- created the “Lynch Fragments” in order segregated community—interwoven with porates actual objects, mostly in metal, ples are more varied in theme. Some relate “to discuss something violent—murder, a five-year residence in Dayton, Ohio, during within the fabric of his constructions. In to historical conflicts, including Iraq (2003). general abuse, kidnapping, to the destruc- his childhood—Edwards did not experi- large-scale pieces, he also joins recog- These relief sculptures, measuring around tion of all human rights.”4 ence the full impact of segregation in his nizable chains with rectangular, colum- 12 inches in length, are always hung on The imagery of chains combined with youth. In 1953, he was one of two students nar, and circular forms. As Edwards sees it, the wall one by one. Placed at eye level disks and other geometric forms continues from his all-black high school to be selected these works embody “the scope of human to the artist’s own height, the “Fragments” in Edwards’s recent public sculpture. He to take art classes at the Houston Museum perception.” Having studied architecture, are both intimate and intimidating. has considered the role of his public work: BOTTOM: © 2016 MELVIN EDWARDS/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY, COURTESY ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES, NY of Fine Arts. Moving to Los Angeles offered TOP: COURTESY ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES, NY / BOTTOM: © 2016 MELVIN EDWARDS/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY, COURTESY ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES, NY and worked with architectural tools, the Although Edwards had no direct exposure “Art related to architecture and making

46 Sculpture 35.4 Sculpture May 2016 47 life better for living. If we can give up war metric forms is of stalwart resolve. The large then it’s how to make life.” These public arc of metal that dominates the work may sculptures demonstrate Edwards’s versatil- allude to the trajectory of McDonogh’s career. ity in creating outdoor projects for various Edwards points out that in this work his use sites. In 1993, he was invited to participate of forms comes together, and he considers in the first Fujisankei Biennale Sculpture the piece one of his most satisfactory Competition in Japan. Asafo Kra No (1993), accomplishments. which was commissioned by the Utsukush- Point of Memory, dedicated 2013 and iga-hara Open-Air Museum and won the standing 18 feet tall, is installed in Parque biennial’s grand prize, includes a chain, de la Beneficiencia, Santiago de Cuba. This a series of disks, and rockers. With this work, sculpture was fabricated in steel at a Edwards returned to painted steel, which foundry at the Fundación Caguayo, directly he had not used for decades. from Edwards’s two-foot-high maquette, Column of Memory (2005), a steel sculp- with the sculptor advising through telephone ture installed in a public park in Saint and e-mail. His involvement with Cuba was Above: Dancing in Nigeria, 1974–78. Paint on welded steel, dimensions variable. Below: Homage to Coco, Louis, Senegal, was fabricated in . encouraged by his friendship with Ana Men - 1970. Painted steel and chain, 48 x 96 x 120 in. The work, which features a squared col- dieta, with whom he first visited Cuba in umn flanked by upright chains, both memo- 1981. Edwards recalls, “I met Wifredo Lam. rializes the shackles of slavery and sug - We traveled all over Cuba; we went to gests that this past has been overcome. As Santiago…On that trip I could see that Cuba Edwards sees it, his use of chains can refer was having a hard time. But it was much to bondage or suggest a connection between worse when we were there later.”5 disparate forces. This work anticipates the Mindful of the African diaspora, Edwards monumental Point of Memory (2010–13) notes, “You can see that the African influ- in Santiago de Cuba, which is Edwards’s ence in Cuba comes pretty specifically from largest version to date of a composition two regions: the region of the Congo, and I joining chains in vertical formation with say region, not country, because it’s that a column. general Bantu-ish part of African culture; Transcendence, dedicated in 2008, was and then the Yoruba region. It’s the same in commissioned to honor the first African Brazil and in Haiti. This kind of specific cul- American graduate of . tural influence is something you can see in Above: Transcendence, 2008. Stainless steel, 16 ft. high. Work installed at Lafayette College, Easton, PA. David Kearney McDonogh, who was born the United States as well.”6 Below: Chaino, 1964. Welded steel and chains, 62 x 102 x 26 in. into slavery, graduated in 1844 and became Recently Edwards was awarded a com- a physician, practicing in the New York area. mission for an as-yet unrealized memorial McDonogh’s life transcended his early years, for Vinegar Hill in Charlottesville, Virginia. and the forms chosen by Edwards allude This historic African American neighborhood to this personal history by including chains was demolished in 1964 as part of an urban joined with large geometric forms that glis- renewal program, and Edwards proposed a rent work as emerging not only from archi- his resolve to leave his mark on the urban- ten in stainless steel. Realizing that the dull stainless steel sculpture that is expected to tectural concerns, but also from the mural scape. Adhering to the Modernist tradition, surface of the steel needed to be worked, be 12 feet high. Having met with commu- paintings that he created in Harlem with he believes that abstract art can reach and Edwards created “chiaroscuro” effects on nity members of Vinegar Hill, Edwards the Smokehouse group. Art can actually transform a large public. the metal. Through grinding and polishing, designed a work that includes circles, arcs, “change places,” he realized. he transformed the surface. The sculpture is and squares joined by a vertical chain. For Edwards’s 21st-century sculptures are Joan Marter is an art critic, editor, and 16 feet high, muscular, and imposing on a Edwards, the work suggests a strong, indicative of the evolution of his style and curator working in New York. raised setting outside the library of Lafayette united community that is hopeful for the

College. It seems that Edwards has deter- future development of their neighborhood, Notes

mined to take the strength and message of a part of Charlottesville that has not com- 1 My sincere thanks to Melvin Edwards for his insights into his work. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from Edwards are taken from an interview with

his smaller “Lynch Fragments” and realize missioned public art for almost a century. the author on November 19, 2015.

them in public settings. On a college cam- Having retired in 2002 after 30 years of 2 Quoted by Catherine Craft in Melvin Edwards, Five Decades (Dallas: Nasher Sculpture Center, 2015), p. 18; originally published in Kellie Jones, “Interview with

pus, this monumental form dedicated to an teaching at Rutgers University, Edwards David Hammons” (1986), in Eye/Minded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art (Duke University Press, 2006), p. 249.

African American student serves to remem- travels widely and has the energy and deter- 3 Quoted by Lowery Stokes Sims, “Melvin Edwards: An Artist’s Life and Philosophy,” in Melvin Edwards, Sculpture (Neuberger Museum of Art, 1993), p. 9.

ber a brave and determined young man. mination to make a difference. His work 4 Melvin Edwards, “Lynch Fragments,” Free Spirits: Annals of the Insurgent Imagination (1982), p. 96.

Though the piece includes chains, the domi- is exhibited in galleries in Paris and Lon- 5 Interview with Michael Brenson, Bomb Magazine, November 2014. 6 TOP: © 2016 MELVIN EDWARDS/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY, COURTESY ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES, NY / BOTTOM: © 2016 MELVIN EDWARDS/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY, COURTESY ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES, NY AND NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER, DALLAS nant effect as conveyed by the stacked geo- TOP: JOAN MARTER / BOTTOM: © 2016 MELVIN EDWARDS/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY, COURTESY ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES, NY don, as well as in Africa. He sees his cur- Ibid.

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