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Edna Andrade (American, 1917-2008), Turbo 1-65, 1965, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 inches, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, Museum purchase, Derby Fund 2006.015, © Estate of Edna Andrade.
Exhibition
Oct 27, 2015
throughFeb 08, 2016

Edna Andrade: An Overview

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Edna Andrade: An Overview opens on October 27, 2015 and remains on view through February 8, 2016, in the Harnett Museum of Art. One of the foremost artists to emerge in Philadelphia in the 1960s, Edna Andrade (American, 1917-2008) is recognized as an early leader of the Op Art movement. Through her pioneering interest in visual perception, her paintings are characterized by pulsating patterns, vivid color, and a sensual immediacy that defies narrative content and meaning. Inspired by the teachings of the Bauhaus, her geometric designs were derived from the study of natural formations as well as architechtonic structures. The exhibition, featuring more than fifty paintings, represents the first comprehensive look at the range of Andrade’s work, from her early figurative landscapes, through her Bauhaus-type designs and transition to Op Art, as well as her quasi-abstract studies of the Atlantic coastline.

About the artist

Edna Andrade was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1917.  Growing up playing with Montessori-type colored blocks and her father’s fascination with structures such as bridges and buildings, she attributed these influences as inspiring her paintings and interest in art. By the age of sixteen, Andrade enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) where she studied cast drawing, mural painting, architecture, and sculpture. At PAFA Andrade was awarded two Cresson Traveling Scholarships that allowed her to visit Europe, exposing her to Bauhaus ideologies and post-war artists that indelibly influenced her approaches to color, abstraction, and teaching. During World War II, she worked for the Office of Strategic Services designing charts, maps, and graphs. Andrade went on to be a celebrated educator at the Philadelphia College of Art and in 1996 was awarded the College Art Association Award for Distinguished Teaching.

About the exhibition

The exhibition surveys the artist’s work from the mid-1950s through 2000, and includes paintings and drawings on loan from a variety of public and private collections, such as the Columbus Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

The exhibition was organized by Debra Bricker Balken and the Estate of Edna Andrade. Balken, an independent curator and writer, was the editor of the accompanying exhibition catalogue, distributed by the University of Pennsylvania Press, which is available at the museum. At the University Museums, the exhibition and related programs are made possible in part with funds from the Louis S. Booth Arts Fund.

The exhibition will travel to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, where it will open on June 24, 2016.

Programming

Friday, January 29, 2016, 2 to 3:30 p.m.
Color Studies Workshop, Harnett Museum of Art, Modlin Center
“Color Theory and the Art of Edna Andrade”
Brooke Inman, artist, and Adjunct Professor,Department of Art and Art History, University of Richmond
Free, registration required (materials provided, call Heather Campbell, Curator of Museum Programs, University Museums, 804-287-6324, or email hcampbel@richmond.edu)
In conjunction with the exhibition Edna Andrade: An Overview
Harnett Museum of Art, University Museums

Edna Andrade: An Overview

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