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An abstract painter and sculptor who was a rising star on the British art scene in the late 1960s and 70s. Influenced by the jazzy, improvisational techniques of the abstract expressionist painters who came into favour in New York after the Second World War, although his paintings also suggested sculptural forms and, conversely, his sculptures, often light and airy, had a painterly touch.
Edwards was thoroughly contemporary… embracing the visual ideas of his time, then synthesising them into his work. His forms were abstract and his colours bold and vibrant, but his work was not easily grouped with any one movement.
Long acknowledged as one of Britain’s prominent abstract artists, he also enjoyed acclaim in the US and India. Edwards grew up in North London, studying at Hornsey College of Art, Crouch End, with further studies at Leeds University’s Institute of Education and l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels, Brussels. The Rowan Gallery in London held nine shows of Edwards from 1967 to 1981, and he also exhibited in Syracuse, Washington, San Francisco, Turin, Jaipur and New Delhi.
John Edwards was also a dedicated sculptor. His work in both mediums appeared in many British group shows in Warsaw, Amsterdam, Madrid, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and a British Council show in Tokyo, among others.
As a talented teacher, in the 1980s Edwards served as head of painting and sculpture at St Martin’s School of Art, London. He also taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York, at Syracuse University and at the Painting School of Montmiral, South-East France. After retiring from teaching, he maintained a prodigious output of paintings and sculptures over the next 20 years, continuing to exhibit regularly in London and abroad.
His works can also be found in collections of the Arts Council of Great Britain, the British Council, the Contemporary Art Society, the European Parliament, the Gulbenkian Foundation, the Power Institute of Fine Arts in Sydney and the Guggenheim.