Mr. Corbett was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, on August 22, 1919, to John Leland Corbett and Laura Corbett. His father was in the army, so the family moved often. Corbett lived in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Texas, Manilla and Ohio all before he turned 14.
Edward Corbett took his first art classes at the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio when he was 11 years old. He continued to pursue the arts throughout high school. Mr. Corbett began art studies at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco in 1937 and eventually enrolled full-time to learn under Lee Randolph, Otis Oldfield and William Gaw. Edward Corbett flourished as a student at California School of Fine Arts (later San Francisco Art Institute) and was awarded the Albert Bender Scholarship, Robert Howe Fletcher Award and the Anne Bremer Memorial Scholarship. He graduated from it in 1941.
Mr. Corbett was in the army and merchant marine during World War II and after a year in New York he returned to California to teach at San Francisco State College and later at the California School of Fine Arts, where he worked alongside Elmer Bischoff, Hassel Smith, David Park, Clay Spohn, Richard Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. During part of his teaching career at CSFA, Mr. Corbett lived in Point Richmond in a house with Robert & Mary Fuller McChesney and Hassel & June Smith. He began to paint his famous black paintings. Some notable works based on his time there are Point Richmond and Evening of the Eclipse.
Edward Corbett served as a professor of the University of California, Berkeley, between 1947 and 1950. Mr. Corbett got his big break when Dorothy Miller chose to exhibit his work in the 15 Americans exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. It was for this catalog that he wrote his now infamous phrase, "I intend my work as poetry". Grace Borgenicht added Mr. Corbett to her roster of artists in 1952. Corbett continued to exhibit with Borgenicht for the rest of his career as an artist.
In 1951, he moved to Taos to teach art and two years later took a job at Mount Holyoke College for nine years, 1953-1963. During this time, he spent his summers between Taos, New Mexico and Provincetown, Massachusetts, and later had a home in Washington, District of Columbia, where he lived from 1964 to 1971. During 1967-1968 Mr. Corbett was a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Edward Corbett was considered one of the most talented artists of the 20th centuries. His works were especially noted for subtle changes of effect in colors and surfaces. His artwork can be found in both private and public collections. U.S. President Barack Obama borrowed Washington, D.C. November 1963 III from the National Gallery of Art.
Untitled
Provincetown Summer 1966 I
P-T #5
Mt. Holyoke
Washington D.C. 1968
Untitled
White Provincetown
Untitled (Black Painting)
Untitled #3
Washington D.C. #1
Washington, D.C., October #8, 1964
Untitled
Washington D.C. December 1964 (#10) I
Washington D.C., January 1964 Number 4
Untitled
November 1963 III
Mt. Holyoke #45
Provincetown VII (Aug #7)
Untitled - For Rosemond Christmas 1963
Washington, DC (Stripe Black)
P-T
Untitled #7
Number 13
Number 9
New Mexico #34
Washington, D.C. 1966 VI
Provincetown No. 1
Provincetown, No. 6
Taos #20
Provincetown drawing #5
Painting for Puritans II
Edward Corbett joined the American Abstract Artists in New York by 1946.
Edward Corbett married Catherine Henck in 1944.
