Dudley Edwards

Dudley Edwards - BiographyThe artist, Dudley Edwards, was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and became a significant figure in the London art scene during the 1960s and beyond. His work over the years apart from painting has included graphic design and illustration, murals, textile design, photography, film direction, and ceramic arts.BEVEdwards first came to prominence in 1966 as a leading light in psychedelic Swinging London and quickly confirmed his legendary credentials as co founder of pioneering Pop Art collective 'Binder, Edwards & Vaughan' aka BEV - a collective consisting of artwork by Douglas Binder and Edwards, with David Vaughan acting as their manager/agent. Binder and Edwards produced vibrantly painted furniture: an iconic piece being Paul McCartney's 'magic piano'.The groups murals appeared everywhere from the boutiques of Kings Road and Carnaby Street to the British Pavilion at Montreal's Expo '6; Admiralty House, The facade of Wolf Olins & Partners. BEV also renowned for their ground-breaking light shows, including 'The Million Volt Light & Sound Rave' 1967 at The Roundhouse, London, featuring the only known public presentation of the 'Carnival Of Light' sound collage created by Paul McCartney and John Lennon during recording sessions for their Sgt Pepper album. They also shared the billing with Yoko Ono and Mark Boyle for the light show at the '17hour Technicolour Dream' Show.BEV were selected to represent the 'Swinging Sixties' at Madame Tussauds, in recognition of their artistic contribution to that era. The group disbanded in 1967.Late 1967 also saw Edwards painting murals in the homes of Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr's, living in their houses for 6 months.Om Tentacle In 1968, after the members of the design collective went their own way, Dudley formed the OM tentacle partnership with Mike McInnerney, producing design work that spanned murals, psychedelic posters, book-covers, and record-covers. They 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 Edwards went on to co-direct (with Martin Cook) a documentary film 'FRED' about a devotee of Meher Baba for Pete Townshend. In the summer of 1975 he was commissioned to photograph the Harlem Ballet in New York's Rockefeller Plaza for Yves St Laurent. 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 Defence HQ in Riyadh.Amazed Ltd In 1995 Edwards joined family business 'AMAZED Ltd' which his partner Madeleine Edwards had started previously. The couple created rugs for celebrities and wall hangings for large corporations.Dudley still continues to paint and his work has been widely exhibited over the years, both in Britain and overseas including: the Robert Frazer Gallery, London; Galerie 5, Geneva, Switzerland; the Arts Council touring exhibitions; the V&A Museum in London; Tate Gallery in Liverpool; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; The Musee d'Histoire Contemporaine, Paris; and the Whitney Museum of Art, New York.Dudley has been a guest speaker at a number of prestigious art institutions, including The Royal College of Art, The Commonwealth Institute in London; National College of Art & Design, Dublin; universities in Australia; and at the NiA Institute, Delhi, India. Show less «