Plural Detail

Leonard Edmondson

Leonard Edmondson creates an interweaving of life forms that exist in an abstracted, interwoven environment, describing them with his own visual "vocabulary."

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, act of drawing and painting."

In his essay on Leonard Edmondson, found on page 200 in "A Spectrum of Innovation: Color in American Printmaking 1890-1860", curator David Acton offered the following appraisal of Edmondson's work:

“Technical virtuosity and originality are characteristic of Edmondson’s etched oeuvre. The artist has acknowledged that landscapes seen from an aerial view were the initial inspiration for his intaglio prints. Onto this topography, however, he superimposed a rich variety of forms and figures, which he perhaps developed from his experience as a calligrapher.... Edmondson’s prints always present rich and fascinating surfaces. Their great variety of textural effects, achieved by soft-ground etching and aquatint, are quite astonishing on close examination….By repetition and refinement, Edmondson developed his printing techniques to a virtuosic level. The majority of his color intaglios were made from one plate, with all the colors layered onto the plate and printed in a single operation….Between about 1955 and 1959, Edmondson experimented with the use of a second soft-ground or aquatint plate, with which he added an overall scrim of tone and pattern to the image.”

Leonard Edmondson was born in Sacramento, California on June 21, 1916. His formal art studies began at Los Angeles City College, and in 1937, he entered the University of California at Berkeley, receiving his B.A. degree in 1940 and his M.A. degree in 1942. With the onset of World War II, Edmondson served in the U.S. Army in Military Intelligence, stationed in Europe from 1942 to 1946. During these years he was exposed to the work of Paul Klee, whose art would remain an influence on Edmondson throughout his career and would inspire his turn from figurative art to non-objective. When the war ended and he continued to be stationed in France, he spent his spare time exploring the collections of the Louvre.

Edmondson took a class in etching from Ernest Freed in 1951 and the following year his print, "Heralds of Inquiry" won an award at the 6th annual National Print Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. His first solo museum exhibition at the De Young Memorial Museum in 1952 was followed by solo exhibitions at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and the Santa Barbara Museum. He won his first Tiffany Fellowship in 1953 and the second in 1955. Edmondson was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1960, which allowed him to focus on his printmaking. In 1967 a retrospective of his work was held at the San Francisco Museum of Art and he published his technical treatise, "Etching", in 1970.