{{Short description|Australian artist (1919–2007)}} {{distinguish}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} 300px|thumb|Glass mosaic mural by Lindsay Edward on former State Library building '''Lindsay M. Edward''' (1919–2007) was an Australian abstract artist, mosaicist and teacher. He was born in Victoria on 26 August 1919.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Zimmer|first=Jenny|date=2 June 2007|title=Teacher's fine art traversed life of his city and times|journal=The Age|pages=10}}</ref>
Edward studied at the National Gallery Art School from 1938 to 1941 under Charles Wheeler and W.B. McInnes.<ref name=":0" /> For 31 years he was associated with the Art School at the Royal Melbourne Technical College (and former Working Men's College) now known as RMIT, where he had been a student,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.artrecord.com/index.cfm/artist/7699-edwards-lindsay/|title=Lindsay Edwards|website=Australian Art Auction Records|access-date=1 Feb 2017}}</ref> and where he was teacher 1947–1954, head of painting, 1954–67 and head of school 1967–79.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art|last=McCulloch|first=Alan|publisher=Fitzroy, Victoria: Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press|year=2006|edition=4th}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> As head of the art department, Edward set up an initiative for systematically developing the RMIT Art Collection, and to make Australian art more accessible to staff and students. He retired from RMIT in August 1979,<ref name=":0" /> after which he made many painting trips to Australia's outback.<ref name=":0" />
His semi-abstract work was exhibited widely in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title='Lindsay Edward and the Art Collection' in: A Skilled Hand and Cultivated Mind: a guide to the architecture and art of RMIT University|last1=Edquist|first1=Harriet|last2=Grierson|first2=Elizabeth|publisher=RMIT University Press|year=2008|pages=104–106}}</ref> and described by Professor Bernard Smith as "a perceptive art with its own quiet distinction".<ref name=":0" /> He described his approach to abstraction as simply wanting "to place sequences of shapes, colours and tones on a surface in an abstract manner, like the notes of a Bach fugue".<ref name=":0" />
Edward also undertook mural commissions for the Victoria Housing Commission, and for church mosaic panels.<ref name=":2" /> One of his murals made of glass mosaic tiles can be seen on the old State Library of Queensland building at 159 William St, Brisbane. This was the winning entry in an Australia-wide competition for a mural to adorn the walls of the Brisbane Public Library in time for the 100-year celebration of responsible government in Queensland in 1959. On winning the competition in 1958, Edward explained that his mosaic design was "not a literal subject, but one suggesting basic primitive organic forms, ageless, belonging to no particular age, indicative of growth and development'.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=7 July 1958|title=Art Teacher wins £500 Mural Prize|url=https://news.google.com.au/newspapers?id=GkkRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JpUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3593%2C976366|journal=The Age|pages=5}}</ref><ref>The Sculpture and Wall Decoration - Public Library of Queensland [typescript, clippings collection, State Library of Queensland]</ref> Photographs of the winning mural were exhibited in Melbourne at Gallery A in September 1960, and were thought to "reveal a quality in design related in strength to figure compositions on Greek pottery".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XKYTAAAAIBAJ&pg=3875%2C3423675|title=Paintings Which Demand Study|last=Shore|first=Arnold|date=20 September 1960|work=The Age|page=2|access-date=31 January 2017|via=Google News Archive}}</ref> This mural contributed to the listing of the former State Library Building on the State Heritage Register in 1992.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://environment.ehp.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600177|title=State Library (former)|website=Queensland Heritage Register|publisher=Queensland Heritage Council|access-date=31 January 2017}}</ref> At 20.7 by 4.4 metres (68 ft x 14 1/2 ft), Edward's mosaic mural is the largest in Queensland,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cooke |first=Glenn R. |date=May 2021 |title=Don Ross, artist and craft worker |journal=Australiana |pages=27}}</ref> (the second largest being the Anzac Square mosaic mural), and is discussed in the book ''Monumental Queensland: sign posts on a cultural landscape''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gibson |first1=Lisanne |title=Monumental Queensland: sign posts on a cultural landscape |last2=Besley, Joanna |publisher=UQP |year=2004 |isbn=0-7022-3465-6 |pages=35–6}}</ref> A close-up image of the mural taken by Graham de Gruchy can be seen at the [http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/ UQ eSpace Library.]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv/UQ:290350/web_Slide_009.jpg|title=View of glass mural by Lindsay Edwards on side of State Library extension, with Qld Lands and Administration building in background.|last=De Gruchy|first=Graham Francis|website=UQ eSpace Library|publisher=University of Queensland}}</ref>
Edward had around 20 solo exhibitions of his work between 1944 and 1993.<ref name=":1" /> In the 1950s he showed paintings at many Melbourne galleries, including Stanley Coe Gallery, Peter Bray Gallery, the Victorian Artists' Society Galleries, and Gallery A. In the 1970s he exhibited in other Melbourne galleries - the Warehouse Galleries, Realities Galleries and Powell St Gallery and in the 1980s and 1990s at David Ellis and the Eastgate Galleries in Hawthorn.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> In Sydney he exhibited at the Holdsworth Gallery and in Perth, the Quentin Gallery.<ref name=":1" /> He also exhibited at the RMIT Gallery in October 1979 on the occasion of his retirement.<ref name=":2" />
His work is held in numerous collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia, ArtBank, and several regional and tertiary galleries in Victoria,<ref>{{Cite news|title=Teacher's fine art traversed life of his city and times|last=Zimmer|first=Jenny|date=2 June 2007|work=The Age|page=10}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> including [http://www.rmit.edu.au/about/our-locations-and-facilities/facilities/exhibition-spaces/rmit-gallery RMIT].
Lindsay Edward died on 9 January 2007. His obituary was written by Jenny Zimmer who taught art history at RMIT during his time there, and was published in ''The Age''.<ref name=":0" />
== References == {{reflist|30em}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edward, Lindsay}} Category:1919 births Category:2007 deaths Category:20th-century Australian male artists Category:Australian abstract artists Category:Academic staff of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Category:Australian mosaic artists Category:Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology alumni Category:National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni Category:Artists from Victoria (state)