Edna Manley
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The Most Honourable Edna Swithenbank Manley OM |
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The sculpture Negro Aroused by Edna Manley on Kingston Waterfront
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| Born |
1 March 1900 Bournemouth, England |
| Died | 2 February 1987 (aged 86) |
| Spouse(s) | Norman Manley (1921-1969) |
Edna Swithenbank Manley, OM (1 March 1900 – 2 February 1987) was a sculptor and contributor to Jamaican culture. She was the wife of Norman Manley, the founder of the Jamaican People's National Party. She is often considered the "mother of Jamaican art".
Edna Manley was the daughter of English cleric Harvey Swithenbank and his Jamaican wife, Ellie Shearer. Her father died when Edna was nine, leaving his widow to raise their nine children by herself. Edna Manley was highly independent and spirited. She attended several art schools in a two-year period, as she sensed that these schools were incredibly limited in what they offered.
As a young woman, she took private art classes with the artist Maurice Harding. She went on to continue her art studies at the Regent Street Polytechnic as well as the Saint Martin's School of Art in London.
In 1921, she married her cousin, Norman Manley, and moved to Jamaica with him in 1922. They had two children, Michael Manley (a future prime minister) and Douglas Manley, a sociologist and minister in his brother's government.
Her move to Jamaica had a profound impact on her work. She abandoned studying zoology back in London, and her work took on a more "inspired formal elegance", according to Boxer. Manley's materials consisted mostly of native woods—she used yakka, mahogany, Guatemalan redwood, juniper cedar, and primavera. Some work dating from her first year on the island are "Beadseller", and "Listener". In describing "Beadseller", Boxer said, "It was as if in one fell swoop, nearly a hundred years of sculptural development had been bridged: in this, her first work done in Jamaica, Edna seems to have given expression to her ideas about contemporary British sculpture with which she had saturated herself prior to leaving England." Both pieces exhibited Manley's more progressive and cubist style.
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