About the Artist

American, 1915–1999

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Ethel Edwards was a painter, collage artist and muralist who studied at Newcomb College in New Orleans with Xavier Gonzalez, whom she married in 1935 in Alpine, Texas, where Gonzalez had conducted a summer art colony for several years. They continued the summer art school for several years until Xavier took a leave of absence to live in France. From 1942 to 1949, the couple lived in New York City and spent summers at Wellfleet, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. She taught at the Art Students League, and also did extensive traveling in the Orient, which influenced her artwork in that she created collages with sumi or Japanese black ink and Japanese rice paper. "The cutouts reportedly had the appearance of ritual forms or hieroglyphs colored orange, gold, silver and black, the whole amounting to a blend of sculpture and painting." (Powers 154). Exhibition venues included the National Academy of Design, the Whitney Museum, and the El Paso Museum of Art, where she had a joint exhibition with Xavier Gonzalez in 1965. Her murals are at the US Post Offices in Lampasas, Texas and Providence, Louisiana.

Artist: Ethel Edwards (1915–1999)

Date of Creation: 1950ss

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Subject: Abstract

Dimensions: 0 x 0"

Framed: Yes

Signed: Yes

Signature Details: Signed lower right.