Sylvia Edwards

Sylvia Anne Edwards (January 30, 1937 – October 25, 2018)^[1] was an American abstract artist. Edwards first exhibited her work in 1975 and went on to hold over thirty solo exhibitions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.^[1]

Sylvia Edwards
Fragmented Joy, Water colour
Born	(1937-01-30)30 January 1937 Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Died	25 October 2018(2018-10-25) (aged 81) London, United Kingdom
Nationality	American
Education	Massachusetts College of Art
Known for	Painting
Spouse	Sadredin Golestaneh
Children	3

Biography

Sylvia Edwards was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Junius and Sylvia (née Mailloux) Edwards.^[1] Her father was a music promoter and manager. In the 1940s, he hired big bands such as those of Harry James, Duke Ellington, and Tommy Dorsey, and he founded the magazine Ballroom and Orchestra.^[2] Edwards' mother encouraged her to draw, and instilled in her a love of color and painting.^[2] Edwards spent her summers at a country house in Uxbridge, Massachusetts.^[2]

Edwards attended Massachusetts College of Art from 1954 to 1957;^[3] there she was influenced by Lawrence Kupferman, a Modernist painter who introduced his students to the work of artists Georges Braque and Piet Mondrian, and to the dynamics of cityscapes.

Edwards left college to marry Sadredin Golestaneh,^[2] and they had their first daughter, Shirin, in 1958.^[2] In 1960, they moved to Philadelphia, where they had their second child, Nader.^[2] In 1961, the family relocated to Tehran, Iran.^[1] In 1966, Edwards gave birth to her third child, Leila, in Southern Iran.^[2]

In 1975, Edwards moved to Switzerland, before settling in London in 1977. She spent summers painting in her studio on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.^[1] She resided in England until her death in 2018.^[1]

Education

Initially, Edwards studied at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 1957; then she studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1958; and finally she completed her postgraduate studies at the Modern Art Studies in London in 1980-1981.^[3]

Solo exhibitions

• London, England, Grosvenor Gallery, 2003
• London, England, The Chelsea Arts Club, 2000
• Boca Grande, Florida, The Galleria, 2000
• Falmouth, Massachusetts, Gallery Szent Gyorgi, 1998
• Boca Grande, Florida, The Galleria, 1998
• Oxford, England, CCA Gallery, 1996
• Provincetown, Massachusetts, Sola Gallery, 1993
• Vero Beach, Florida, Munson Gallery, 1992
• Braunschweig, Germany, Jaeshke Gallery, 1991
• Chatham, Massachusetts, Munson Gallery, 1991
• Johannesburg, South Africa, Natalie Knight Gallery, 1991
• Tokyo, Japan, Bankamura, 1991
• Tokyo, Japan, Gallery K. Hyazaki Prefecture, 1991
• Tokyo, Japan, Mitsukoshi Mihonbashi Branch, 1991
• London, England, Berkley Square Gallery, 1991
• Tokyo, Japan, Sony Plaza, 1991
• Sarasota, Florida, The Salon Gallery, 1990
• London, England, CCA Gallery, 1990
• Singapore, Art Base Gallery, 1989
• Tokyo, Japan, CCA Gallery, 1989
• Osaka, Japan, The Nii Gallery, 1989
• London, England, The Berkeley Square Gallery, 1988
• Guernsey, Channel Isles, Coach House Gallery, 1986
• London, England, Christopher Hull Gallery, 1985
• London, England, Hamiltons Gallery, 1982
• Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Morehead Planetarium (UNC), 1982
• Boston, Massachusetts, Parkman House, 1982
• Boston, Massachusetts, Boston City Hall, 1981
• London, England, Hamiltons Gallery, 1980
• Alexandria, Egypt, Museum of Fine Arts, 1980
• Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Old Sculpin Gallery, 1979
• London, England, Belgrave Gallery, 1978
• Geneva, Switzerland, CERN, 1977
• Rolle, Switzerland, CH Gallery, 1976
• Tehran, Iran, Iran American Society, 1975

Public collections

• Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom^[4]
• Cape Museum of Fine Arts (Cape Cod), Dennis, Massachusetts
• Museum of Fine Arts, Alexandria, Egypt
• London Lighthouse, London, United Kingdom
• Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, Indiana

Selected criticism

Selected criticism of Sylvia Edwards' work helps to give a sense of the art itself.

Jacques SIMON, Journal de Téhéran, April 1975

Infinite Softness

"The works of Sylvia Edwards Golestaneh have an affinity with Japanese wood-cuts and the artist has brought to realization the innate character and possibilities of watercolor: flow of colors and lines in space, the poetry of shapes and themes. This gentleness seems to touch the world and transform it, even perpetuate it in the calm pastel hues and the satisfying and warm pulse of tints which remain pure and fresh when merged, especially when they embark on a dialogue of an intimate nature. One sees elegant vases shooting forth delicate, flowering branches, villages and traditional structures, flowering spring landscapes or those of winter covered with their silent layer of snow.

In this calm painting the figurative becomes 'tachist' or even 'cubist' but always indistinct, nebulous, gently stirring.

These gentle country themes take, on occasion, directions where one may conjure up some sort of hidden frivolity, secret and introspective which introduces into this charming atmosphere of sincerity, several passionate touches which are the subtle spice of peace and serenity."

Mel Gooding, Arts Review, 1988

"Her flower paintings glow as if with inner light—taking on the living vibrancies"

Robin Duthy, 1988

"Each time Edwards gives her kaleidoscopic mind a shake, we get a splendidly lush yet pictorially ordered glimpse of chaos. Nothing in these paintings is encoded in a private language... Rather they are unaffected celebrations of the world in its upbeat mode."