TitleIcicles
Artist
Nick Edmonds
(American, 1937 - 2021)
Date1982
MediumWalnut wood and fieldstone
DimensionsOverall: 38 7/8 × 31 1/2 × 27 in.
Other (from 1988 exh. cat.): 39 1/2 × 32 × 26 in.
SignedSigned on back, carved at lower center: "NE" (conjoined).
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, April 22, 1993
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1993.13
Label TextSince the early 1960s sculptor Nick Edmonds has explored the expressive possibilities of carving and constructing with wood. Born in Boston, Edmonds initially studied at the Ogunquit School of Painting and Sculpture before enrolling in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he studied with Ernest Morenon and Robert Laurent and graduated with honors in 1961. In 1965, Edmonds was hired as professor of sculpture at Boston University, where he would teach for nearly forty years. Many of the artist's works from the mid-1960s were carved from single logs that he found at the town dump in Sharon, Massachusetts. While essentially abstract, these sculptures strongly recall standing and reclining figures and were carved by repeatedly gouging the surface of the wood to create a scalloped effect. In seeking greater expressive possibilities, he began to combine large pieces of wood but found traditional adhesives inadequate for the size and density of the materials. Determined to find a solution, Edmonds sought out cultures that utilized architectural joinery and in 1969 won a travel grant from the Boston Museum School to go to Norway where he could learn about joinery construction. Edmonds's Norwegian sojourn was not as illuminating as he had hoped so he next turned his attention to traditional Japanese architectural construction. In 1975 he was awarded a Fulbright grant to travel to Kyoto, Japan, where he found both technical and creative inspiration in abundance. For eight months Edmonds observed and paintstakingly documented the dismantling and re-assembling of a 600 year-old wooden gate of the Tofukuji Temple. His fascination with specific architectural features, such as where wood meets stone, and his interaction with Japanese rock gardens would have a lasting effect on his sculpture that continues today. He has been able to utilize elements of Japanese carpentry to create his own visual language of expressive shapes and negative space. Upon his return from Japan he began a series of works that incorporated his recently acquired knowledge of joinery with an Eastern-inspired aesthetic. By the late 1980s the artist began to apply polychrome to his work and recently has returned to a more literal figurative style.
"Icicles" was created as part of this Japanese-inspired group and actually began as a demonstration for a class of students to show how to carve various conical shapes and to illustrate the structural aspects of the wood grain. Edmonds initially carved the icicles in relief, but as he continued to work on the piece they became realized in the round. While it remained inherently referential through the dagger like icicles, the overall effect became more and more abstract. The artist's preceding works had been landscape-based, and while "Icicles" may be a slight departure, it retains a landscape connection through the large rock in the lower portion of the sculpture. Not only element suggest a traditional Japanese rock garden, but it also serves a practical function as a counterweight to the heavy walnut wood.
MNP
