Jon Edgar: Carvings and Claywork at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery

Worthing Museum and Art Gallery presents forty sculptures spanning the last decade, by the Frink School-trained artist Jon Edgar. We are proud to be hosting Worthing’s first solo show of Edgar’s work, which extends beyond the Garden and Garden Gallery to all around the museum and art gallery.

There are a number of reasons why Jon Edgar wanted to exhibit here at Worthing. After returning to live in West Sussex, he was drawn to Worthing’s Frink Desert Quartet, Worthing Museum’s quality public collection, and the proximity to his birthplace in Rustington.

Strong local connections run throughout his work, including a new portrait study Triptych Sussex Siblings (278 years) works in Sussex marble (Winklestone), quarrying for which ended a hundred years ago. A bust of Duncan Carse, Antarctic explorer and voice of 'Dick Barton' is also on display; the landscape to the north of the Downs was his home for 40 years.

Working in the same tradition as artists like Jacob Epstein, Edgar’s warm direct carvings in wood and stone, contrast with closely-observed terracotta portraits of eminent sitters such as Sir Roy Strong. His influences include the medieval artists as well as the octogenarian sculptor and teacher Alan Thornhill whose working methods dispense with the pre-conceived. Edgar has several works in public collections in the UK and abroad.

“Disregard artist statements and intellectual pomposity in favour of spending the time letting the eyes and fingers decide whether one connects with the work... or not. It really should be as simple as that.”
                                    Jon Edgar

The effort required collecting and curating a collection of forty sculptures - weighing nearly two tonnes in all - is considerable, but Worthing’s 12 week exhibition schedule enables a show such as this to take place. Visitors of all generations should fully experience this very tactile, contemporary, non-conceptual artist’s work.    

Jon Edgar: Carvings and Claywork is at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery from 20 March - 19 June 2010.