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Melvin Edwards
1937
BirthplaceHouston, Texas, United States of America
Biography
Melvin “Mel” Edwards is known for his abstract sculptures and three-dimensional installations made from welded steel, barbed wire, chain, and salvaged materials.
Born in Houston, Texas, in 1937, the oldest of four children, Edwards spent five childhood years in Ohio before returning to Houston. After high school, he moved to California, studying first at Los Angeles City College and then at the University of Southern California, where he worked with the Hungarian artist Francis de Erdely (1905–1959) and embraced abstraction in paintings and drawings. He learned welding from a graduate student in the department and began to create and exhibit welded, abstract sculptures.
Responding to racist violence during the Civil Rights era, Edwards began to make frontal, relief sculptures using found metal objects, including chains, knives, locks, and tool parts. He named the group Lynch Fragments, a series that he has expanded throughout his career. These sculptures are among his best-known works. Mounted on the wall, they evoke notions of slavery, bondage, and violence through their titles, materials, and harsh geometric edges. At the same time, they resist being narrativized.
After several exhibitions in the early 1960s in California, including his first solo show (Santa Barbara Museum, 1965), Edwards moved to New York City in 1966 and exhibited work at the Studio Museum in Harlem. In addition to his studio practice, Edwards began to create large-scale public sculptures. From 1968 to 1970, he collaborated with fellow artists Guy Ciarcia (b. 1942), and William T. Williams (b. 1942) to form the Smokehouse Associates. The group worked collectively to paint murals and produce sculptures for Harlem neighborhoods, collaborating with members of the community. They embraced abstraction as part of a democratic practice.
In 1970, Edwards’s solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art was its first exhibition of an African American sculptor, and it brought him national attention. He included works made of barbed wire and chains. Although he was working in an abstract style, his choice of materials imbued his sculptures with complexity and made them open to multiple meanings. For example, he explained that chains could refer both to slavery and to intergenerational connections. He insisted on the positive power of creativity and continued to combine formalism and narrative throughout his career.
He began collaborating with poet Jayne Cortez (1934–2012) in 1971, and the two were married in 1975, a second marriage for each of them. During these years, Edwards focused on printmaking and became a member of the Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. He is also known for freestanding sculptures such as his kinetic “rockers” series begun in 1970, which includes Good Friends in Chicago (TF 2023.5). In 1972, Edwards joined the faculty of Rutgers University, where he taught for thirty years.
Edwards made his first trip to Africa in 1973, traveling to Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. He returned to Nigeria in 1977 and worked in Zimbabwe in 1988. In the 1990s and 2000s, he traveled regularly between Africa and the United States, teaching and exhibiting throughout the African continent.
Born in Houston, Texas, in 1937, the oldest of four children, Edwards spent five childhood years in Ohio before returning to Houston. After high school, he moved to California, studying first at Los Angeles City College and then at the University of Southern California, where he worked with the Hungarian artist Francis de Erdely (1905–1959) and embraced abstraction in paintings and drawings. He learned welding from a graduate student in the department and began to create and exhibit welded, abstract sculptures.
Responding to racist violence during the Civil Rights era, Edwards began to make frontal, relief sculptures using found metal objects, including chains, knives, locks, and tool parts. He named the group Lynch Fragments, a series that he has expanded throughout his career. These sculptures are among his best-known works. Mounted on the wall, they evoke notions of slavery, bondage, and violence through their titles, materials, and harsh geometric edges. At the same time, they resist being narrativized.
After several exhibitions in the early 1960s in California, including his first solo show (Santa Barbara Museum, 1965), Edwards moved to New York City in 1966 and exhibited work at the Studio Museum in Harlem. In addition to his studio practice, Edwards began to create large-scale public sculptures. From 1968 to 1970, he collaborated with fellow artists Guy Ciarcia (b. 1942), and William T. Williams (b. 1942) to form the Smokehouse Associates. The group worked collectively to paint murals and produce sculptures for Harlem neighborhoods, collaborating with members of the community. They embraced abstraction as part of a democratic practice.
In 1970, Edwards’s solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art was its first exhibition of an African American sculptor, and it brought him national attention. He included works made of barbed wire and chains. Although he was working in an abstract style, his choice of materials imbued his sculptures with complexity and made them open to multiple meanings. For example, he explained that chains could refer both to slavery and to intergenerational connections. He insisted on the positive power of creativity and continued to combine formalism and narrative throughout his career.
He began collaborating with poet Jayne Cortez (1934–2012) in 1971, and the two were married in 1975, a second marriage for each of them. During these years, Edwards focused on printmaking and became a member of the Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. He is also known for freestanding sculptures such as his kinetic “rockers” series begun in 1970, which includes Good Friends in Chicago (TF 2023.5). In 1972, Edwards joined the faculty of Rutgers University, where he taught for thirty years.
Edwards made his first trip to Africa in 1973, traveling to Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. He returned to Nigeria in 1977 and worked in Zimbabwe in 1988. In the 1990s and 2000s, he traveled regularly between Africa and the United States, teaching and exhibiting throughout the African continent.