1938-2011
Works in the Collection
Biography
Walter Edmonds was a Philadelphia-based artist known for the 14 large-scale murals he developed alongside Richard Watson at the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia.
Edmonds was born in 1938 in Philadelphia. He attended Philadelphia College of Art, Fleisher Art Memorial, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1966, Edmonds was among a group of young Black artists and students chosen to exhibit at William Penn Memorial Museum in Harrisburg by the mayor’s Committee on Human Relations. Others included Moe Brooker, Barbara Bullock, Charles Pridgen, Percy Ricks, Ellen Powell Tiberino, and Leroy Johnson. Edmonds’ work was also included in the 2015 exhibition, We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s at the Woodmere Art Museum.
In addition to private art collections, Edmonds’ work is in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and his papers are in the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. The artist passed away in 2011 at the age of 73.