Melvin Edwards: 'SOME BRIGHT MORNING'
Melvin Edward’s solo show, SOME BRIGHT MORNING, at the Fridericianum is the first major presentation of the artist’s work in Europe. It is being realised in cooperation with Kunsthalle Bern and Palais de Tokyo.
A pioneer in the history of contemporary African-American art, Edwards is celebrated for his distinctive sculptures and three-dimensional installations created from welded steel, barbed wire, chain and machine parts. While Edwards’ formal language clearly engages with the history of abstraction and modern sculpture, his work is born out of the social and political turmoil of the civil rights movement in the United States. Themes of race, protest and social injustice permeate the artist’s practice.
Edward’s works on paper provide an interesting counterpoint to the sculptural practice for which the artist is most well-known. Rendered in ink and watercolour on paper, the subject of these works is the silhouette of barbed wire. The use of industrial materials such as wire and chains are used to evoke complex and menacing narratives of entrapment and labour, while referencing the geometric language of his Minimalist peers.
Speakers at the opening of SOME BRIGHT MORNING include Prof. Dr. Andreas Hoffmann (Managing Director, documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH), Staatsminister Timon Gremmels (Hessian Minister of Higher Education, Research and the Arts), Eva Claudia Scholtz (Executive Director, Cultural Foundation of Hesse) and Moritz Wesseler (Director, Fridericianum).
