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Ready Now Now (Lynch Fragment)

1988
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 302
Edwards began his Lynch Fragment series in 1963 with the relief sculpture Some Bright Morning, a reference to a story in Ralph Ginzburg’s anthology 100 Years of Lynchings (1962). Inspired by the socially engaged practices of modernists such as Julio González (1876–1942) and David Smith (1906–1965), Edwards welds scraps of found metal to create new forms, and the sculptures’ implicit threat of violence derives in part from the chains, nails, and other tools of which they are constructed. He made this work during and immediately following a residency in Zimbabwe.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Ready Now Now (Lynch Fragment)
  • Artist: Melvin Edwards (American, born Houston, 1937)
  • Date: 1988
  • Medium: Welded steel
  • Dimensions: 10 1/2 × 11 1/4 × 10 1/4 in. (26.7 × 28.6 × 26 cm)
    Weight: 17.1 lb. (7.8 kg)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Hortense and William A. Mohr Sculpture Purchase Fund, 1991
  • Object Number: 1991.202
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Melvin Edwards / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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