User:Lydiaredican/sandbox

DUDLEY EDWARDS (artist)

Dudley Edwards born 6 May 1944 is an English painter, draughtsman and applied artist in the genres of illustration, textiles, ceramics, murals and photography. Edwards was born in Halifax, England to Muriel and Jack Edwards and was educated at Halifax School of Art 1959 – 61 and then Bradford College of Art 1961 – 64

Early Career (1965 - 1982)

Edwards first came to prominence in 1965 during the Swinging London era, as co-founder of pioneering Pop Art collective ‘Binder, Edwards & Vaughan’ aka BEV – a collective consisting of artwork by Binder and Edwards, with David Vaughan acting as their manager/agent. Binder and Edwards were distinguished as the first artists in Britain (since the ‘Omega Workshops’ 1913-20) to produce painted furniture: a notable piece being Paul McCartney’s iconic piano2 on which McCartney wrote the songs ‘Getting Better’3, ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Fixing a Hole’ and ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band’4 The piano now resides in his music room in London. According to McCartney writing the songs on the piano “added to the fun of it all”5. In 1966 BEV were selected to represent the ‘Swinging Sixties’ at Madam Tussauds, in recognition of their artistic contribution to that era.

Binder and Edward’s murals appeared everywhere from the boutiques of Kings Road and Carnaby Street6,7 to the British Pavilion at Montreal’s Expo ’67; Admiralty House, The Central Office of Information and The Façade of Wolf Olins & Partners. BEV were also known for ground-breaking light shows such as ‘The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave’ aka ‘Festival of Light’ which featured music from Jimmy Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Delia Derbyshire, The Radiophonic Workshop8 and Soft Machine. BEV also shared the billing with Yoko Ono and Mark Boyle for the light show at the 17 hour Technicolour Dream Show9. Binder and Edwards were also innovators of customised cars,10 11 one being exhibited at The Robert Frazer Gallery. In 1967 at the time the group disbanded, Binder and Edwards received invitations from Sir Hugh Casson and the Design Council to design a mural for London Zoo, for a solo exhibition at the Royal College of Art and stage sets for Sadlers Wells.

1967 also saw Edwards painting murals in the home of Sir Paul McCartney and with Ringo later commissioning Edwards to paint a mural in his home following his appreciation of McCartney’s psychedelic piano12 13.

OM Tentacle

Later that year Dudley Edwards and Michael McInnerney merged their identity together as ‘OM Tentacle’. “We chose the name from OM referring to the OM sound, or OM point at the beginning of creation, according to Buddhist and Hindu teachings. The equivalent of the physicist's 'Big Bang Theory' and in a manner of visualising - we are all tentacles from that. Mike and I painted the front of the Dragon restaurant in the Kings Road, and we also produced a number of psychedelic record covers and posters (for musicians including Arthur Brown, Cat Stevens, The Soft Machine and Fats Domino) and book jackets14. They also received an invitation from Ettore Sottsas (pre Memphis) to produce a series of designs for plastic laminates at ‘Abet Print’ in Italy.

When OM Tentacle disbanded McInnerney went on to design the album cover for ‘Tommy’15, Edwards went on to co-direct (with Martin Cook) a documentary film ‘FRED’ about a devotee of Meher Baba for Pete Townshend16 , In the intervening years he continued to Illustrate Record Covers, book jackets, magazines and posters. These were interspersed with commissions from other genres. In the summer of 1975 he was commissioned by Stan Peskett to photograph the Harlem Ballet in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza for Yves St Laurent17 18. In 1982 Sheik Abdul Aziz-Zaidan commissioned him to paint a huge ceramic mural for his palace in Al Karj, and then - again working with Douglas Binder in 1976 he created a suite of sixteen ceramic murals for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense HQ in Riyadh.

Teaching Career

He has taught at Hornsey College of Art, Stafford College of Art, Bradford College of Art. Leeds Metropolitan University and Cleveland College of Art. He has been a guest speaker at The Royal College of Art, London; The Commonwealth Institute, London; In Australia at Swinburne University, South Wales University and The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, In India at the NiA institute, Delhi; and in Ireland at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin.

Later Career (1995 – Present)

In 1995 Edwards joined family business ‘AMAZED Ltd’19 20 which his partner Madeleine Edwards had started the previous year. They created rugs and wall hangings that are considered to be pieces of fine art. Their rugs have been commissioned for the foyers of such companies as Jones Lang La Salle, London; Eversheds, Manchester; CNCP Banks, Paris; Hirsch Bedner, USA; Sheraton Ocean Grande Resort, Japan and Laing O’Rourke Headquarters, London.

Dudley now concentrates on his paintings his work has been exhibited at

Arts Council Touring Exhibition to Edinburgh, Glasgow & Cardiff; Galerie 5, Geneva, Switzerland; Association of Illustrators Gallery, London; England & Co, London; the Musee d’ Histoire Contemporaine, Paris; Brighton Art Gallery; Red House Gallery, Harrogate; The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Tate Gallery, Liverpool; and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; the Whitney Museum of Art, New York and most recently at The Crossley Gallery, Dean Clough Mills, Halifax.