Art historian Naomi Edmondson, the daughter of late Lowcountry artist Arnold Edmondson, recently created an online archive of her father’s expansive body of visual art pieces. Through the archive, Naomi is attempting to digitize over 40 years of visual art from Arnold’s career.
“His work ran the gamut from realistic oil paintings of the Lowcountry, to assemblage on wooden panels or old kitchen appliances, to Picasso-inspired cubism, to obsessively detailed sketchbook pages,” Naomi said in an email to the City Paper.
The early 2000s were a productive time for Arnold’s career, according to Naomi, but some work, like “The Smoker I,” dates back to the early 1970s. The site’s landing page also pays tribute to Arnold’s life in a biography written by Naomi. She discusses his potential “outsider artist” status, his diagnosis with bipolar disorder and his deep understanding of art history.
Naomi also announced a book about Arnold’s life and work, currently being drafted.
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