Edna Andrade (January 25, 1917

Portsmouth, Virginia Portsmouth is an independent city in southeast Virginia and across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk. As of the 2020 census, the population was 97,915. It is part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Naval M ...

- April 17, 2008

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

) was an American

abstract artist Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

. She was an early

Op Art Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions. Op artworks are abstract, with many better-known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images ...

ist.

Op Art

The

movement refers to paintings and sculptures that use illusions or optical effects. Op art includes graphic elements and use of color that similarly appears in works from other movements such as

Post Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction aga ...

Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...

, and

Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

Early life and education

Edna Davis Wright was born on January 25, 1917, in

. Between 1935 and 1936 Andrade studied at the

Barnes Foundation The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pen ...

Merion, Pennsylvania Merion Station, also known as Merion, is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It borders Philadelphia to its west and is one of the communities that make up the Philadelphia Main Line. Merion Station is part of Lower Me ...

. From the age of eight, she was encouraged to practice drawing and painting. In 1937 she attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. In 1938 she completed Post Graduate studies at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...

.Hu, Joseph. "Edna Andrade : Biography , Locks Gallery." Accessed April 22, 2015. http://www.locksgallery.com/artists.php?aid=1 . While at the

, Andrade was awarded two Cresson Traveling Scholarships. While traveling post

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Andrade encountered the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

movement and other examples of German modernism. The artistic experimentation happening in Europe influences Andrade's approach to design, color, and abstraction. In 1941 she married architect Preston Andrade and they moved to Philadelphia in 1946, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

Career

After her studies, Andrade taught art at an elementary school in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

. Subsequently, she taught at

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

in New Orleans. Upon her move to Philadelphia, she began teaching at

The University of the Arts The University of the Arts (UArts) is a private art university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its campus makes up part of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia. Dating back to the 1870s, it is one of the oldest schools of art o ...

, where she taught for thirty years. In her early career she drafted on a freelance basis, but did not take charge of her career until her marriage ended.Rosenberg, Amy S. "An Op Art original." The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 11, 2007. Andrade's early work includes water color collages and ink drawing of abstracted landscapes (an outpouring of art). During

, she worked on propaganda materials for what is now the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

. Over the course of her career she created public artwork, commissioned by the

Free Library of Philadelphia The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves Philadelphia. It is the 13th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the City of Philadelphia gove ...

and the

Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

. Beginning in the 1950s, Andrade painted highly abstract, geometric paintings that used a limited color palette and variety of shapes. Her work is in numerous collections including the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

, The Museum of Contemporary Art Buenos Aires, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Dallas Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Baltimore Art Museum, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, and the Delaware Art Museum. Her papers are held at the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

Style

As a part of the Op art movement, Andrade's style confronts the nature of perception, creating highly abstracted, geometric images. Her oil paintings possess illusionistic qualities, hence "optical art." As Andrade began creating illusionistic art, she shifted from organic abstraction to hard-edge geometry, emphasizing symmetrical squares and color juxtapositions. Andrade's style of painting often produces hallucinatory compositions, psychedelic in appearance and often as if they are moving. Her paintings have no narrative, nor subject matter, which situate Andrade as an abstract artist. In an interview with ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'', Andrade comments on her paintings, stating, "It's not like showing your emotion. It's a decision to be totally visual. A story doesn't go with it." As demonstrated by Andrade and her paintings, they are complex visual experiences, based in aesthetic experimentation rather than storytelling. Her style is best exhibited in her most famous painting, ''Motion 4-64''. ''Motion 4-64'' is a 48-inch square oil painting featuring black and white rectangles. The edges bend inward, pulling the viewer into the center of the canvas, creating an illusionary experience.Ann Fabri, "Edna Andrade at ICA and Locks," Art in America 91 (2003): 171. She implements curvilinear lines to create an illusionistic space, in which the audience visually experiences movement within the geometric, flowing design. Other paintings such as ''Turbo I'', from 1965, integrate the science of perception into the viewer's experience by using lines and circular movements to create aesthetically engaging canvasses. In her later work, Andrade returns to painting abstracted landscapes and practices the more fundamental art techniques she learned while at the

Influences

Andrade listed artists who particularly influenced her style including Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, and Josef Salvador González Ruvalcaba the María Del Refugio González BarajasAlbers. Andrade also notes that she was influenced by architectural design, philosophy, mathematics, and design (Locks bio). She was specifically inspired by things such as astrophysics and Freudian psychology, contributing to the complexity and detail of her paintings.

Death

Andrade died on April 17, 2008, at the age of 91 in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Recognition

In 1991 Andrade received Philadelphia's Mayor's Arts and Culture Award for Visual Arts as well as the Distinguished Teaching Award from the College Art Association in 1996.

Legacy

In 1997, the Leeway Foundation established the Edna Andrade Emerging Artist Award to encourage and assist female artists in their artistic careers. In 2013, the Edna Andrade Summer Scholarship was established at the

, providing travel for student researchers. There have been two major retrospectives of Andrade's work. The first was held in 1993 at the

and the second in 2003 at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the

.Institute of Contemporary Art. Edna Andrade: Optical Paintings, 1963-1986. exh. cat., text by Debra Bricker Balken and Ingrid Schaffner. Philadelphia. 2003. Andrade's artwork was more popular toward the end of her career and after her death. Although she is considered an influential Op artist, she was left out of the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

art scene due to her location in

Select exhibitions

*''Cool Waves and Hot Blocks: The Art of Edna Andrade'', (1993)

*''Edna Andrade, Optical Paintings: 1963-1988'', (2003)

Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum in Philadelphia. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to e ...

*''Pop Art and Its Affinities'' (2006-2007)

, Philadelphia *''Edna Andrade Optical Paintings, 1960-1966'', (2007) Locks Gallery *''Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s'' (2007)

Columbus Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collect ...

, OH *''Close at Hand'', (2011)

The Fabric Workshop and Museum The Fabric Workshop and Museum, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, is a non-profit arts organization devoted to creating new work in new materials and new media in collaboration with emerging, nationally, and internationally rec ...

, Philadelphia *''Color Motion: Edna Andrade Prints'', (2012) The Print Center, Philadelphia

References

Edna Andrade Monograp
University of Pennsylvania Press

the Edna Andrade Estate is represented by th
Locks Gallery, Philadelphia

External links

*http://www.locksgallery.com/artists/edna-andrade
Edna Andrade with her painting Nudes on a Beach., ca. 1949
*http://www.artnet.com/artists/edna-andrade/
Artforum Critic's Pick exhibition at Locks Gallery, 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrade, Edna 1917 births 2008 deaths American abstract artists American women artists People from Portsmouth, Virginia University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni Op art