Solo Exhibition
Dudley Edwards: I Got Rhythm
Dudley Edwards
This September RedHouse Gallery is delighted to present a new exhibition by renowned artist Dudley Edwards. The collection will feature paintings, drawings, prints and photographs, many of which will be going on display for the first time.
Born in Halifax in 1944, Edwards first came to promience in the 1960s as co-founder of the ground-breaking Pop collective BEV, whose pop art and psychedlic murals appeared everywhere from the boutiques of Kings Road and Carnaby Steet to Paul McCartney’s ‘Magic Piano’.
Dudley Edwards invented a form that others would pick up and run with. He tapped into the colours and ideas of the time and created a highly influential form of playful, yet rigorous design.
Norman Hathaway and Dan Nadal, Electric Banana
I Got Rhythmwill be Edwards’ first solo exhibition with us since his 2012 show In Technicolour, which focused on the artist’s 1960s work with BEV and commissions undertaken for The Beatles.
The prevailing years have proved a fertile period for the artist, who has built a new studio in the picturesque Yorkshire Dales. In contrast to In Technicolour, Edwards has looked back to the past taking inspiration from Degas, Picasso and Matisse.
Edwards often likes to appropriate popular song titles in his work and in this case I Got Rhythm draws inspiration from George Gershwin and the ‘Tin Pan Alley’ era. Edwards had to find a common link between his works, and rhythm is there in all of them.
Artist’s Statement:
“For this exhibition I had to find a common link between my paintings, drawings, prints and photographs; Rhythm is there in all of them. Like many of my contemporaries I try to remain true to the two-dimensional surface of the work. I am not interested in trying to create an illusion of depth, therefore, if I refrain from moving in or out from the canvas, then I have to move laterally around the surface. Paul Klee said ‘Drawing is the art of taking a line for a walk’. I like to lead the eye on a dance. In order to keep the dancer on the ballroom floor my compositions make use of enclosed shapes like circles, figures of eight or labyrinthine spirals By use of contrasting elements e.g. angles and curves the Rhythms may vary in tempo and time signatures from a waltz to a quick step, fox trot or a tango.”
“Will you, won’t you, will you won’t you come and join the dance?”
