SYLVIA EDWARDS Book Review

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Title: SYLVIA EDWARDS:
Author: MEL GOODING & DAVID ELLIOTT
One of the world's most popular commercial artists with her bestselling designs for Unicef greetings cards, Sylvia Edwards initially found it difficult as an American woman abstract painter to establish herself on the British scene. Born in Boston, Edwards married an Iranian while still at art school and settled in Tehran, returning to Europe on the break-up of her marriage. This stunning monograph, including 187 superb colour reproductions, covers her painting as she moves from early figurative studies such as the haunting "Valley of Sils", 1972, towards the pure abstraction of such gorgeous watercolours as "Black Sun", 1990. The Iranian influence of kaleidoscopic colours and intricate patterning is very apparent in abstract work such as "Carpet Bazaar", 1995, or "Checkered Mountain", 1996, suggesting the influence of Klee, Kandinsky and Matisse. The grid pattern paradoxically liberated Edwards and the early flower studies with their intense saturated hue became the brilliantly imagined watercolour fantasias which made her international reputation. In the past ten years she has moved away from formulaic figuration and fantasy into a looser, more gestural style, finding colour forms through the organic flow of the liquid medium in works such as "Kenyan Quiet" and "Abstract in Scarlet and Yellow". In addition to the 187 reproductions, there is a signed lithographic print from an edition of 500 included with the book. 190pp, large format, 187 colour plates, signed print, exhibitions, biography.
Published Price: £55.00
BIBLIOPHILE PRICE: £20