THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Friday, April 18, 2008 MICHAEL BRYANT Inquirer Staff Photographer Edna Andrade was "a great lady and a generous spirit, and an inspiration to us all,' said Anne d'Harnoncourt, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Andrade taught for more than 30 years and continued to paint and draw until her death. p Andrade beloved as artist, teacher ANDRADE from B1 ginia. She was born in Ports- gradually moved in the late mouth on Jan. 25, 1917, as 1950s into a strain of geomet- Edna Davis Wright, daugh- rical abstraction that generat- ter of alumberman-engineer ed dazzling, and sometimes and a schoolteacher. dizzying, optical effects. She began her career as an It's for these precise, meticu- art teacher in Norfolk public lously crafted images, exhibit- schools and later at Tulane ed at Penn's Institute of Con- University. In 1941, she mar- temporary Art in 2003, that ried architect Preston An- she is best known. Other art- drade, who introduced her ists extrapolated from geome- to the fields of architecture try, but Ms. Andrade's ap- and design. During World proach is distinctive for its War II, she was involved in a gentle, luminous palette and number of design projects, lush, poetic lyricism. One including creating posters doesn't expect to find such and pamphlets for the war qualities, and even occasional bond division of the Trea- whimsicality, in Euclidean rig- sury Department. or. Ms. Andrade moved to Ms. Andrade, who contin- Philadelphia in 1946. Dur- ued to paint and draw until ing the late 1940s and '50s, her death, moved away from she did freelance drafting abstraction about 1993 and for architects; plans for returned to realism, ex- Philadelphia's airport were pressed through highly de- one such job. She had her tailed drawings of coastal "Color Motion 4-64," part of the Art Museum collection, first major solo exhibition rocks found near her long- exemplifies Andrade's dizzying geometrics. at the Philadelphia Art Alli- time summer residence in ance in 1954, and was hired Maine. Mass.: the Yale University real-life force in the city." at Philadelphia College of The Philadelphia Museum Art Gallery; and the Balti- "She was a great lady and Art in 1958. of Art owns 25 of her paint- more Museum of Art. She ex- a generous spirit, and an in- Divorced from Andrade in ings, drawings and prints. hibited her work periodically spiration to us all. We will 1960, she recalled in an inter- One painting, Color Motion at Locks Gallery here from miss her very, very much." view last year that the di- 4-64, is included in the exhi- the gallery's founding in Philadelphia painter Diane vorce allowed her artistic ca- bition "Pop Art and Its Affini- 1968 until early last year. Burko, a longtime friend, reer to flourish. "I didn't real- ties," on view through June. Art Museum director Anne called Ms. Andrade "the ly take charge of my career Another, Mariposa, will be d'Harnoncourt described most incredible human be- until middle age." hung tomorrow in the corri- Ms. Andrade as "a thought- ing, the quintessential artist, She is survived by a broth- dor gallery outside the audi- ful artist whose taste was al- and role model. Her dedica- er, Thomas Judson Wright torium as a memorial. ways interesting, and whose tion to her art, her dedica- 3d of Portsmouth, and a sis- Besides the Art Museum support and encouragement tion to speaking her mind ter, Mary Wright Thrasher of and the academy, Ms. An- of younger artists was abso- were both inspirational. She Norfolk, Va. Funeral arrange- drade's art is also owned by lutely terrific. I always was my artist mother." ments are incomplete. the Albright-Knox Gallery in thought of her not only as a Friends attributed Ms. An- Buffalo; the Addison Gallery remarkable painter and a drade's graciousness to her Edward J. Sozanski is The of American Art in Andover, wonderful teacher but as a upbringing in Tidewater Vir- Inquirer's contributing art critic.