Edda Renouf

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| name = Edda Renouf

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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1943}}

| birth_place = Mexico City, Mexico

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| education = Sarah Lawrence College (B.A., 1965)
Columbia University (M.F.A., 1971)

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| style = Minimalist, monochromatic

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| website = {{URL|http://eddarenouf.com}}

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Edda Renouf (born 1943) is an American painter and printmaker.{{Cite web|url=http://vogel5050.org/artists/125|title=Vogel 50x50: Edda Renouf|website=vogel5050.org|access-date=2016-03-04}} Renouf creates minimalist abstract paintings and drawings developed from her close attention to subtle properties of materials, such as the woven threads in linen canvas and the flax and cotton fibers of paper. Renouf often alters these supports by removing threads from the weave of a canvas, or in her drawings, creating lines by incising the paper.{{cite web | url=http://corsair.morganlibrary.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=2135&recCount=50&recPointer=5&bibId=411717 | title=Structure Change of Incised Lines VI (White Series I) | year=2011 }}

Early life

Renouf was born in Mexico City in 1943,{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/edgy-sculpture-tentative-modernism-and-a-chunk-of-chinese-marble-1468617806|title=Edgy Sculpture, Tentative Modernism and a Chunk of Chinese Marble|last=Plagens|first=Peter|date=2016-07-15|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=2019-03-21|language=en-US|issn=0099-9660}} the daughter of Edward Renouf, an artist, and his wife, Catharine Innes (Smith) Renouf. She studied from 1961 to 1965 at Sarah Lawrence College (BA 1965), from 1967 to 1968 at the Art Students League, and from 1968 to 1971 at Columbia University School of the Arts (MFA 1971). While earning her MFA, Renouf studied with several visiting artists including Richard Pousette-Dart, Carl Andre, and Jack Tworkov.

After graduating, Renouf received a painting fellowship from Columbia University that allowed her to live and work in Paris for a year.{{cite web | url=https://www.eddarenouf.com/biography.html | title=Edda Renouf : Biography }} It was during this period that Renouf met dealer Yvon Lambert who, impressed by her work, gave Renouf her first solo exhibition in 1972.{{cite web | url=https://vogel5050.org/artists/125 | title=Vogel 50x50: Edda Renouf }}

Career

Annely Juda Fine Art, Renouf's London representative, characterizes the artist as having a "deep engagement with her materials." When painting, Renouf alters the surface of her linen canvases before applying paint. She carefully removes threads from her canvases which she then reapplies, adds pigment, and then finally sands down the applied medium to bring the alterations she has made to the forefront.{{Cite web|url=http://www.annelyjudafineart.co.uk/artists/edda-renouf|title=Annely Juda Fine Art {{!}} Artists {{!}} Edda Renouf|website=www.annelyjudafineart.co.uk|access-date=2016-03-04}} This process and composition is based on a grid, an important element in Renouf's practice, but her method of removing and reapplying threads allows her to introduce curves to her paintings that gives them a more organic structure.{{cite web | url=https://thewadsworth.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Matrix-36.pdf | title=Wadsworth Atheneum}}

In her paper works and drawings, Renouf incises fine lines before applying pastel pigments. She also works with watercolor, graphite, and ink. Like her paintings, Renouf's works on paper pair geometry with flexible organic elements. The contrast between the two calls attention to the underlying texture of the surface and the physical qualities of her materials.{{cite web | url=https://www.annelyjudafineart.co.uk/artists/61-edda-renouf/overview/ | title=Edda Renouf - Overview }}

Renouf has lived in New York and Paris since 1972.{{Cite web|url=http://www.eightmodern.net/artists/biography/5021|title=EightModern {{!}} Edda Renouf|website=www.eightmodern.net|access-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307141531/http://www.eightmodern.net/artists/biography/5021|archive-date=2016-03-07|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/benezit/B00151118|title=Benezit Dictionary of Artists - RENOUF, Edda|last=|first=|date=|website=Oxford Art Online|publisher=|access-date=2016-03-04}} She divides her time between her studios in Paris and Washington Depot, Connecticut, with her husband, the French and American composer, Alain Middleton. Yvon Lambert Gallery represented Renouf until 1993. Renouf had her first solo exhibition in the United States with Blum Helman Gallery, New York in 1978.{{cite web | url=https://www.eddarenouf.com/onepersonexhb.html | title=Edda Renouf: One-Person Exhibitions }} They represented Renouf in the United States until 2002. She is exhibited by Annely Juda Fine Art, London in Europe and by Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York in the United States.{{cite web | url=http://www.barbaramathesgallery.com/artists/edda-renouf/selected-works | title=Edda renouf - Artist - Barbara Mathes Gallery }}

Renouf was the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in 1990. In 1997, Renouf was the subject of a major retrospective at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe in Karlsruhe, Germany. The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., also presented a solo exhibition of Renouf's work in 2004 titled Revealed Structures. A catalogue was published alongside the exhibition.{{cite web | url=https://shop.nmwa.org/products/edda-renouf | title=Edda Renouf }}

Collections

Renouf's works are held in the collections of the Akron Art Museum,{{cite web | url=https://akronartmuseum.org/collection/?fulltext=Edda+Renouf | title=Akron Art Museum - Collections }} the Albright–Knox Art Gallery,{{cite web | url=https://buffaloakg.org/search-collection?keyword=Edda%20Renouf&search_by=all&op=Search&sort_by=collection_highlights&field_view_status_value=All&field_description_value_1_op=%3D&field_short_description_value_1_op=%3D&field_collection_highlights_value=All&field_image_target_id_op=%3C&title=Edda%20Renouf&field_brief_bio_value=Edda%20Renouf&title_person=Edda%20Renouf&field_short_description_value=Edda%20Renouf&name=Edda%20Renouf | title=Search the Collection | Buffalo AKG Art Museum }} the Blanton Museum of Art,{{cite web|title=Blanton Museum of Art Online Collections Database|url=http://collection.blantonmuseum.org/THA9271?sid=53724&x=1506604}}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} the British Museum,{{cite web | url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=Edda&keyword=Renouf | title=Collections Search | British Museum }} the Brooklyn Museum,{{cite web | url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/209828 | title=Brooklyn Museum }} the Centre Pompidou in Paris,{{cite web | url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/recherche/oeuvres?terms=Edda%20Renouf | title=Recherche }}the Art Institute of Chicago,{{Cite news|url=http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/artist/Renouf%252C+Edda|title=Renouf, Edda {{!}} The Art Institute of Chicago|newspaper=The Art Institute of Chicago|access-date=2016-03-04}} the Cincinnati Art Museum,{{cite web | url=https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=21691408 | title=Cincinnati Art Museum: Explore the Collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum }} the Collection Lambert, Avignon, France,{{cite web |title=Here VII |url=https://www.eddarenouf.com/apc/mlf1%202.html |website=Edda Renouf |access-date=10 January 2023}} the Dallas Museum of Art,{{cite web | url=https://collections.dma.org/artwork/5199604 | title=Frequency Piece II - DMA Collection Online }} the Harvard Art Museums,{{cite web | url=https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections?q=Edda+Renouf | title=Browse Our Collections | Harvard Art Museums }} the High Museum of Art,{{cite web | url=https://high.org/explore/page/0/?keyword=Edda%2CRenouf& | title=Explore | access-date=2022-08-10 | archive-date=2022-11-22 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122173846/https://high.org/explore/page/0/?keyword=Edda,Renouf& | url-status=dead }} the Indianapolis Museum of Art,{{cite web | url=http://collection.imamuseum.org/results.html?query=Edda+Renouf&has_image=T | title=Indianapolis Museum of Art Collection Search }} the Kunstmuseum Winterthur,{{cite web | url=https://kmw.zetcom.net/de/collection/?q=Edda%20Renouf | title=Unsere Sammlung }}Metropolitan Museum of Art,{{cite web |title=Search The Collection: Edda Renouf |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=Edda+Renouf |website=The Met |access-date=10 January 2023}} the Morgan Library & Museum,{{cite web | url=https://www.themorgan.org/drawings/item/440575 | title=Edda Renouf | date=23 February 2022 }} the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago,{{cite web | url=https://mcachicago.org/collection/items/edda-renouf/1204-wing-piece-iii | title=MCA - Collection: Wing Piece III }} the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles{{cite web | url=https://www.moca.org/artist/edda-renouf | title=Edda Renouf }} the Museum of Modern Art (New York City),{{cite web | url=https://www.moma.org/collection/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Edda+Renouf&classifications=any&date_begin=Pre-1850&date_end=2022&with_images=1&page=&direction= | title=The Collection | MoMA }}National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Portland Museum of Art,{{cite web | url=http://www.portlandartmuseum.us/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=12439;type=701 | title=Edda Renouf }} the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the CU Art Museum at the University of Colorado Boulder,{{Cite web|url=http://5065.sydneyplus.com/CU_Art_Museum_ArgusNet/Portal.aspx?lang=en-US&g_AABJ=Edda+Renouf|title=Edda Renouf|website=Art Museum Portal, University of Colorado Boulder|access-date=2017-03-03}} the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum,{{cite web | url=https://whitney.org/collection/works?q%5Bsearch_cont%5D=Edda%20Renouf | title=Collection }} and the Yale University Art Gallery.{{cite web | url=https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/132978 | title=14 Incised Lines | Yale University Art Gallery }}