In Defense of Interiority: Melvin Edwards’ Early Work
Melvin Edwards made his first abstract sculptures at the beginning of the contemporary period in the early 1960s, but the ways he held on formally to a modern notion of “interiority” in his <i>Lynch Fragments</i> series provide us with an underexamined aesthetic position in contemporary...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Arts |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/12/6/247 |
| _version_ | 1797382102714417152 |
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| author | Elise Archias |
| author_facet | Elise Archias |
| author_sort | Elise Archias |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Melvin Edwards made his first abstract sculptures at the beginning of the contemporary period in the early 1960s, but the ways he held on formally to a modern notion of “interiority” in his <i>Lynch Fragments</i> series provide us with an underexamined aesthetic position in contemporary art. Edwards offered nuanced relationships between interior and exterior at a moment when concepts of “interiority” and “self” were under the most strain in contemporary art practice. If we consider this turn away from interiority—and toward surface, emptiness, system, and dematerialization—to be, in part, a symptom of the pressure exerted by the commodity form on art viewers’ sensibilities after 1955, then the stakes of Edwards’ choice not only to use found metal objects, but to compose them around an active rather than empty center, feel higher. By comparing the sculpture <i>Mojo for 1404</i> (1964) with the <i>Bichos</i> (1960–1965) of Lygia Clark, the distinctiveness of Edwards’ project emerges even more strongly. Clark responded to the crisis of interiority with shiny metal sculptures whose interiors were constantly being flipped inside-out. By contrast, Edwards’ art was motivated by the struggle for racial justice, and it persistently spoke its desire for grounded, scarred personhood in an aesthetic language that required viewers to recall their own interiority. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T21:00:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-798877f0541d4e4283b73425c8f740fd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0752 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T21:00:39Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Arts |
| spelling | doaj.art-798877f0541d4e4283b73425c8f740fd2023-12-22T13:52:30ZengMDPI AGArts2076-07522023-12-0112624710.3390/arts12060247In Defense of Interiority: Melvin Edwards’ Early WorkElise Archias0Department of Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USAMelvin Edwards made his first abstract sculptures at the beginning of the contemporary period in the early 1960s, but the ways he held on formally to a modern notion of “interiority” in his <i>Lynch Fragments</i> series provide us with an underexamined aesthetic position in contemporary art. Edwards offered nuanced relationships between interior and exterior at a moment when concepts of “interiority” and “self” were under the most strain in contemporary art practice. If we consider this turn away from interiority—and toward surface, emptiness, system, and dematerialization—to be, in part, a symptom of the pressure exerted by the commodity form on art viewers’ sensibilities after 1955, then the stakes of Edwards’ choice not only to use found metal objects, but to compose them around an active rather than empty center, feel higher. By comparing the sculpture <i>Mojo for 1404</i> (1964) with the <i>Bichos</i> (1960–1965) of Lygia Clark, the distinctiveness of Edwards’ project emerges even more strongly. Clark responded to the crisis of interiority with shiny metal sculptures whose interiors were constantly being flipped inside-out. By contrast, Edwards’ art was motivated by the struggle for racial justice, and it persistently spoke its desire for grounded, scarred personhood in an aesthetic language that required viewers to recall their own interiority.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/12/6/247sculpturecontemporary artmodernismprofessional managerial classneoliberalismpost-modernism |
| spellingShingle | Elise Archias In Defense of Interiority: Melvin Edwards’ Early Work Arts sculpture contemporary art modernism professional managerial class neoliberalism post-modernism |
| title | In Defense of Interiority: Melvin Edwards’ Early Work |
| title_full | In Defense of Interiority: Melvin Edwards’ Early Work |
| title_fullStr | In Defense of Interiority: Melvin Edwards’ Early Work |
| title_full_unstemmed | In Defense of Interiority: Melvin Edwards’ Early Work |
| title_short | In Defense of Interiority: Melvin Edwards’ Early Work |
| title_sort | in defense of interiority melvin edwards early work |
| topic | sculpture contemporary art modernism professional managerial class neoliberalism post-modernism |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/12/6/247 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT elisearchias indefenseofinterioritymelvinedwardsearlywork |