LEONARD EDMONDSON 1916-2002

Biography: Leonard Edmondson's art career began at the University of California at Berkeley. After service in the Army, from 1942 to 1946, Edmondson embarked on a distinguished teaching career that has spanned five decades. Although renowned for his work as a printmaker, Edmondson has used a wide variety of media in his art. By 1950, he made an abrupt change from figuration to abstraction, cited by the artist as a journey of discovery of inspiration and meaning in his work. Launching his distinctive style from abstract surrealism of Paul Klee and expressionism of Hans Hofmann to techniques of Stanley William Hayter, Edmondson's aesthetic vocabulary invokes `almost remembered' forms, feelings and spaces in his paintings, watercolors, etchings and screenprints. Leonard Edmondson wrote: "This vocabulary manifests itself in a dynamic structure where color responds to the size and position of shapes, and reinforces the intent of the composition. Lines close to make shapes that occupy shallow space. I am equally concerned with what I want to say and the formal values I use to say it. My painting is not art of rebellion but one of discovery and sharing. I have found satisfaction in the spontaneous, often compulsive, active of drawing and painting."

Chronology: [Click For Chrono PDF]



Exhibitions at Tobey C. Moss Gallery:



  2007 Leonard Edmondson: Exploration of Abstraction

  2004 Edmondson vs. Drewes: Relief vs. Intaglio

  2003 Leonard Edmondson Memorial

  1998 Leonard Edmondson: Images From Within

  1995 Leonard Edmondson: Sensory Memory - Images, 1940s-1960s

   In ArtScene - About Leonard Edmondson

Paintings

Image Click on image for further info	Title Click on image for further info	Medium	Date
	Yellow Reward	Oil on masonite	1950
	Pathway to Alarms	Oil on board	1952
	Self Start	Oil on canvas	c.1954
	Images	Oil on canvas	c.1954
	Decorated for Bravery	Oil on burlap on canvas	c.1958
	Untitled	Ink and gouache on linen	1950
	Untitled	Ink and gouache	1953
	Spaces	Ink and gouache	1953
	Intervention	Ink and gouache	1954
	Gateway	Ink, pencil and gouache	1954
	Interaction	Ink and gouache	1955

Drawings

Image Click on image for further info	Title Click on image for further info	Medium	Date
	Thrust	Gouache and collage	1951
	Objects on a Table, no. 2	Pencil on paper	1948
	Abstracted Figure	Black casein on paper with scratch drawing	1948
	Intention	Ink on linen on paper	1950
	Germination	Pencils and gesso	1950
	Untitled	Black and red pencils	1951
	Untitled	Pencil	1951
	Curiouser and Curiouser	India ink and gouache, perforated and stippled	1951
	Reflections	Ink	1952
	Incantation No.2	India ink	1955
	Spring	Ink, gouache and graphite	1956
	Untitled	Pen, pencil, ink and watercolor	1951
	Untitled	Ink and gouache on linen	1950
	Untitled	Ink and gouache	1953
	Spaces	Ink and gouache	1953
	Intervention	Ink and gouache	1954
	Gateway	Ink, pencil and gouache	1954
	Interaction	Ink and gouache	1955
	Roots of Silence	Gouaches and india ink	1952
	Fantasy	Watercolor and ink	1955
	Drawing	Ink and gouache	c.1951

Prints

Image Click on image for further info	Title Click on image for further info	Medium	Date
	Abstraction No. 1	Stippled etching	1949
	Abstraction No. 2	Etching	1949
	Field of Interference	Stipple etching	1950
	Initiation Into Ongoing	Color intaglio	1951
	Initiation	Lithograph	1951
	Reconstruction of Experience	Color etching and aquatint	1951
	Consequences of Doctrine	Color etching and aquatint	1951
	Cumulative Activity	Color etching and aquatint	1951
	Heroes and Agencies	Color etching and aquatint	1951
	Isolation of Attitude	Color etching and aquatint	1951
	Implied Eminence	Color etching	1951
	Sphere of Hostility	Color etching	1953
	Inherent Conception	Color woodcut on complex Japanese paper	1953
	Mutual Time	Color etching and aquatint	1953
	Figures of Reflection	Color etching and aquatint	1953
	Flying	Etching and aquatint	1953
	Refuge from Fancy	Color etching and aquatint	1953
	Circumstances of Action	Color etching and aquatint	1953
	Signs and Manifestations	Color etching and aquatint	1953
	Untitled	Color intaglio	1954
	Untitled	Etching and aquatint	1954
	Seedlings	Screenprint	1955
	Primeval	Screenprint	1955
	Tropical Gardens I	Screenprint	1955
	Tropical Gardens II	Screenprint	1955
	Botanical Garden I	Screenprint	1955
	Botanical Garden II	Screenprint	1955
	Burial Mound	Color etching	1955
	Letters Toward Experience	Color etching	1955
	Flying Machine	Color etching and aquatint	1956
	Winter Garden	Color etching	1957
	Labyrinth	Color etching	1958
	The Listeners	Color etching and aquatint	1958
	Parable of the Fox and the Grapes	Color etching	1959
	Wind Currents	Color etching	1959
	Black Bird	Color etching	1960
	Exodus	Color intaglio with embossing	1961
	Flower Power	Color etching	1967
	Tin Soldier II	Color intaglio	1967
	Australia	Color etching and aquatint	1970s
	Burning Sun	Monoprint (reverse drawing)	c.1955
	Organic Flowering	Color etching and aquatint	c.1967

Collage

Image Click on image for further info	Title Click on image for further info	Medium	Date
	The Parade	Collage: gouache and papers	1952/53
	Thrust	Gouache and collage	1951
	Festival	Collage and watercolor on board	1951
	Shoreline	Gouache and collage on construction paper	c.1948
	Broadcast	Collage: gouache, ink, papers on heavy sheet	c.1948
	Decorated for Bravery	Oil on burlap on canvas	c.1958