Edward Avedisian

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BERRY CAMPBELL TO FEATURE THE PAINTINGS OF EDWARD AVEDISIAN (1936 – 2007): THE SOHO YEARS

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, November 8, 2013 – BERRY CAMPBELL is pleased to announce the November 21st opening of Edward Avedisian: The Soho Years, presenting nineteen vibrantly colored paintings and works on paper.  The Soho Years will feature works painted between the early 1960s and 70s when Avedisian was living and working in the Soho neighborhood of New York.  These abstract works such as his biomorphic forms, striped orbs, and stripes with splashes were prominently featured in Artforum (including the magazine’s cover in January 1969), Artnews, and Arts magazines. 

Edward Avedisian was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1936 and attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  After moving to New York City in the early 1960s, he joined the dynamic art scene in Greenwich Village, frequenting the Cedar Tavern on Tenth Street, associating with the critic Clement Greenberg, and joining a new generation of abstract artists, such as Darby Bannard, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, and Larry Poons.

Avedisian was among the leading figures to emerge in the New York art world during the 1960s.  An artist who mixed the hot colors of Pop Art with the cool, more analytical qualities of Color Field painting, he was instrumental in the exploration of new abstract methods to examine the primacy of optical experience, breaking from the tactility of Abstract Expressionism.

His works were included in landmark exhibitions such as Op Art: The Responsive Eye, at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum’s Young America 1965 and the Expo 67, held in Montreal.  In 1971, Avedisian was included along with Bannard, Dan Christensen, Ron Davis, Poons, and Peter Young in the exhibition Six Painters, organized by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in collaboration with the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Milwaukee Art Center.

Avedisian’s work may be found in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Denver Art Museum, Colorado; the Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York; the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York; the Portland Art Museum, Oregon; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.

The opening reception will take place on Thursday, November 21 from 6 to 9 pm. The exhibition will run through Saturday, January 4, 2014.   Berry Campbell is located in the heart of Chelsea at 530 W. 24th Street.

For more information please contact Christine Berry or Martha Campbell at 212-924-2178, info@berrycampbell.com or www.berrycampbell.com. 

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