MS01.03.03 - Box 07 - Folder 02 - Introspectives - Correspondence with Artists, 1987-1988, Part 2

June 28, 1988 David Driskell

RE: Introspective: Contemporary Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent Enclosed are slides of my recent work as well as my resume and the press release from my one-artist show last January at Sculpture Center Gallery. If you need anything else please give me a call at the above number. Regards. Sincerely,

Tyrone Mitchell

July 6, 1988 Mr. William R. Hudson

Dear Bill : Thank you for being so prompt in your response to my inquiry about your work for the upcoming exhibition which I am co-curating centering on American and Brazilian artists of African ancestry. I wish every¬ one was as concise and clear in their perspective as you are when you write about what you are doing. You really must be a wonderful teacher and I would think that students anywhere would be more than blessed to sit at your feet. I have always loved and enjoyed your work. It is one of the fresh directions in our culture and having read with interest your fine commentary, I am even more taken with the development of your work over the years. Someday, I would like to do a more indepth study with an exhibition of your work and a few other artists of comparable worth in the manner that I did with Sam, Bill , Martha and Keith as I believe that it would be an important contribution to the field.

I hope that you will not mind my quoting you when I bevelop the meat of the essay centering on the American side of the exhibition. There is so much that is so well said in your letter of June 28.

The photos you sent were fine and I would think that either will be fine for the catalog. Thank you for sending along the sources for your work. I am so impressed that you keep good re¬ cords as so many artists, including myself when it comes to my own work, do not always do. Since I do not have the correspondence file with me here for the simmer I am not sure as to whether or not you have already been sent a loan form. If you have been sent one, please go ahead and make the selection on your own and let me know what you chose. But I have enough general information to get started now. Do have a good summer and I hope that a position will come your way which allows you the chance to produce your art as you certainly should be allowed to do. My number here is . Sincerely, DCD/c David C. Driskell

[EMBOSSED LETTERHEAD]

KEITH A. MORRISON [Info Redacted]

Dr. David C. Driskell [Info Redacted]

July 14, 1988

Dear Dr. Driskell:

It gives me great pleasure to accept your invitation to exhibit two of my paintings in the exhibition "Introspective: Contemporary Art By Americans and Brazilians of African Descent." I understand that the exhibition will be held at the California Afro-American Museum in January, 1989. Thank you for inviting me.

Please find enclosed the statement about the paintings, as you requested, an up-dated CV and slides. However, note that the photographer accidentally took "Zombie Jamboree in reverse. I have marked which is the front on the slide. Unfortunately, the slide of "Chariot" is a bit dark, but it is fairly good anyway. I have also included two details of "Chariot."

I am returning the completed loan forms to you under separate cover.

Sincerely yours.

/S/ Keith A. Morrison

Keith A. Morrison

[PHOTO ON RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF MELVIN EDWARDS SITTING AMIDST HIS CREATIVE WORKS]

MELVIN EDWARDS

Born: Houston, Texas, 1937

Education: University Southern California, 1965 = USC Other schools: Los Angeles City College Los Angeles County Art Institute

Awards: 1984 - National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship New Jersey State Council on the Arts

Selected Exhibitions:

1984 - The Sculpture of Melvin Edwards, solo exhibition, UNESCO, Paris, France

1983 - Drawings for Southern Sunrise, solo exhibition, Winston-Salem State University, N.C

1982 - Solo exhibition, Sculpture Center, New York

1981 - Solo exhibition, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey

1980 - Solo exhibition, 55 Mercer Gallery, New York Solo exhibition, YMHA Green Lane, Union, New Jersey

Selected Collections:

New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey Museum of Modern Art, New York Chase Manhattan Bank, New York Shomburg Collection, Harlem, New York Los Angeles County Museum, California

Selected Bibliography:

Bowling, F. “It’s Not Enough to Say Black is Beautiful.” Art News 70 (April, 1971):55.

Campbell, Mary Schmidt. "Melvin Edwards Sculptures 1964-84", Maison de L’Unesco, Paris, 1984.

Edgerton, A.C. and M. Tuchman. “Modern and Contemporary Art Council, Young Talent Awards 1963-1983.” Bulletin-Los Angeles City Museum of A rt 27 (1983): 11.

Fine, Elsa Honig. "The Afro-American Artist", New York, 1982.

Robins, Corrine. "The Pluralist Era - American Art 1968-1981", New York, 1984. Wilson, J. “Melvin Edwards, at 55 Mercer.” Art in America 68 (October, 1980): 136-137.

MELVIN EDWARDS

Born on May 4, 1937 in Houston, Texas, Melvin Edwards was trained as a painter at the University of Southern California where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (1965). He turned to sculpture in 1960, and began to receive favorable critical attention a few years later with his "Lynch Fragments", a series of forged and welded scrap metal sculptures. With these small wall pieces Edwards began his exploration of the aesthetic power and expressiveness of unpainted steel.

Edwards came to New York from the West Coast in 1967. The works that he produced in New York reflected a shift in mood and thematic focus. Lighter and more playful than the scrap metal works, they consisted of simplified, geometric forms of steel painted red, yellow, or blue. In the 1970's he produced a series of "rockers" that introduced mobility as a new component of his work. At this same time, Edwards began variations on the theme of the gateway or passageway. These large floor pieces and public sculpture were based on architectural concepts and were structured to include a roof-like element. African art and architecture have stylistically and formally influenced his scrap metal sculpture, floor sculpture, and large scale commissioned work. Edwards' assemblages and constructions are comprised of forged and welded steel, and a variety of found objects including steel plates, open mesh steel, barbed wire, chains, locks, crowbars, and machetes.

Since he began exhibiting in the mid-1960's, Edwards has had numerous solo exhibitions. He exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1970), The Studio Museum in Harlem (1978), UNESCO in Paris (1984), and at the Atrium Gallery at the University of Connecticut (1985). Edwards has completed several major commissions. His most recent commission includes a sculpture on the campus of the Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina (1985). Edwards was the recipient of a John Hay Whitney Fellowship (1964), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1975), and is also the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts awards (1970 and 1984). He has held a professorship at Rutgers University' in New Jersey since 1972.