Edna Andrade

Edna Andrade (January 25, 1917 – April 17, 2008) was an American abstract artist. She was an early Op Artist.

Op Art The Op Art 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, Futurism, Constructivism, and Dadaism.

Early life and education Edna Davis Wright was born on January 25, 1917, in Portsmouth, Virginia. Between 1935 and 1936 Andrade studied at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania. 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. In 1938 she completed Post Graduate studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

While at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Andrade was awarded two Cresson Traveling Scholarships. While traveling post World War II, Andrade encountered the Bauhaus movement and other examples of German modernism.

Andrade's early work includes water color collages and ink drawing of abstracted landscapes (an outpouring of art). During World War II, she worked on propaganda materials for what is now the CIA. Her work is in numerous collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Baltimore Museum of Art; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Her papers are held at the Archives of American Art.

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, 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." 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 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. 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 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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 art scene due to her location in Philadelphia. Edna Andrade Optical Paintings, 1960-1966, (2007) Locks Gallery Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s (2007) Columbus Museum of Art, OH Color Motion: Edna Andrade Prints, (2012) The Print Center, Philadelphia