‘Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days’ ends May 8, 2023

The deCordova Sculpture Park is a great place to take in several selected works by one artist, especially Melvin Edwards! You can get close to all sides of each artwork and recognize connections to related sculptures within your view. Circle them on snowshoes or other ways this winter; stroll among them in the spring. Feeling lucky to live so near, I’ll pass along related links, quotes, and photos now.

“On view from June 2022 to May 2023, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days showcases six monumental, abstract sculptures by the acclaimed contemporary African American artist Melvin Edwards (b. 1937). (Quote excerpt from Trustees of Reservations, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days )

“Brighter Days offers a focused look at Edwards’ accomplishments in large-scale sculpture and public art through five sculptures from 1970 to 1996, and a sixth commissioned in 2020 for Brighter Days. These six works elaborate on his examination of race, labor, and the African Diaspora, and feature his signature use of abstract, representational icons like chains.” (Quote excerpt from Trustees of Reservations, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days )

“Tracing the long arc of Edwards’ career, these six sculptures encourage us to remain mindful of the past as we cherish the social linkages that are more important than ever.” ( Quote excerpt from Public Art Fund, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days, City Hall Park, New York curated by Daniel S. Palmer)

“The links in Song of the Broken Chains are monumental in scale, with broken fragments suggesting both liberation and rupture, and the artist’s title evoking a solemn yet hopeful song of redemption.” (Quote excerpt from Public Art Fund, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days, City Hall Park, New York curated by Daniel S. Palmer)

The Promise: “This sculpture has not been seen publicly since the early 1990s. It unites a welded chain column with three curved components to create a dynamic archway form on a human scale. The shimmer of the wire-brushed stainless steel is emblematic of a number of Edwards’ large-scale works on permanent view throughout New York City” ( Quote excerpt from Public Art Fund, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days, City Hall Park, New York curated by Daniel S. Palmer)

“‘Homage to Coco” marks the beginning of Edwards’ Rockers series. The large red-painted semi-circles evoke the back and forth of the rocking chair often occupied by his grandmother Cora, who he nicknamed Coco.“( Quote excerpt from Public Art Fund, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days, City Hall Park, New York curated by Daniel S. Palmer)

“The title Before Words conveys the artist’s theory of an essential creative urge present in each of us. Edwards suggests,“’before words’ we had to communicate…human beings needed to communicate so they made the process of words…the need and the concept were there before.” (Quote excerpt from Public Art Fund, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days, City Hall Park, New York curated by Daniel S. Palmer)

“The burnished stainless steel welded forms of Ukpo. Edo and Untitled express a dynamic luster and mirror-like finish that reflects the light and colors of the surrounding environment. … The lively planes of this group of works gain deeper meaning through the symbolic chain forms and the title, which means “Roads of Edo.” (Quote excerpt from Public Art Fund, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days, City Hall Park, New York curated by Daniel S. Palmer)

“Edwards has produced over 20 public works throughout his career for universities, public housing projects, and museums. Now living and working across multiple studios in two states and Senegal, Melvin Edwards continues to be a leading voice in sculpture, exhibiting nationally and internationally. “(Quote excerpt from Trustees of Reservations, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days )

“A pioneer of abstract sculpture, Houston-born Melvin Edwards began his career in the 1960s after studying at the University of Southern California. Edwards gained notoriety from his first solo exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1965, where he uniquely blurred abstraction and symbolism to comment on social justice issues – an approach distinct from his Minimalist and Post-Modernist contemporaries.”(Quote excerpt from Trustees of Reservations, Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days )

“…. many of Edwards’ monumental recent works are luminous and uplifting, in both finish and form—a buoyancy reflected in the title—Brighter Days—of the six-sculpture grouping (to May 8, 2023) that recently brightened my mood on an appropriately sunny day at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA.” (Quote excerpt from Melvin Edwards Unchained: Ascending from “Lynch Fragments” to “Brighter Days, Culture Grrl, Arts Journal, August 23, 2022) )

KEY RESOURCES (links in red)

Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days Trustees of Reservations, deCordova Sculpture Park Exhibit until May 8, 2023

Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days, City Hall Park, 5/ 4, 21 – 11/ 28/21 with informative listings about each of the six sculptures, plus a valuable four-minute video with Mel Edwards discussing his art within the New York setting of Brighter Days!

Alexander Gray Associates, Artist Melvin Edwards Great examples of Melvin Edwards’ range of work in various media and other exhibits!

Melvin Edwards Unchained: Ascending from “Lynch Fragments” to “Brighter Days” August 23, 2022 by CultureGrrl

BYO Snowshoe Tour at deCordova