To be organizing a show on Solowey Still Lifes in the spring, as the flowers seen in many paintings are just starting to bloom is a fascinating experience. We can know practically the month and day he painted works like Iris & Snowballs (seen at left), because those same blooms are on view right now. Of course by the time of our opening on June 7th, Ben’s favorite flower, the peony, will be in bloom, and visitors will see his garden ringed with them.
I am very excited to have a catalogue of nearly 20 works in our new exhibition. When we started 21 years ago, it would be hard to imagine a small run of a full color publication. People have long asked to have some memento of our shows, we hope this will become a regular feature of our shows.
Look for information on particular works in the exhibition on The Letter blog on our website. While we don’t use too much text on our walls, as anyone who has been here or knows me, there is always plenty to tell about individual works.
Something that is already a regular feature of our openings is the home baked goods that fill the Solowey home. This tradition was started by my mother Joan Leopold, but was also a hallmark of Rae Solowey’s. Rae made a mean chocolate cake and even Ben was heralded for his cherry pie. At times, I have been convinced that people come to the openings for the goodies and enjoy seeing the art as well. We have featured some recipes over the years on our website, but now many of my mother’s recipes for desserts as well as every other part of the meal have been collected in the “Cooking For a Cure” cookbook that has recently been published to raise funds for Lungevity (in memory of Joan Leopold and Ann Leopold Kaplan) and Relay for Life (in memory of Susan Lench). Copies are only $10 and will be available during the run of the exhibition.
Consider yourselves the first to know that my Tony Auth retrospective will be on view at The Philadelphia Foundation this fall. Opening on September 10, the exhibition kicks off the campaign to bring Tony’s remarkable intact archive of art, prints and related ephemera to Temple University. Nearly 100,000 people have seen this show already, so if you have not seen it, please make a point to get into Philadelphia this fall to see at The Philadelphia Foundation’s Market Street headquarters.
We’ll see you when we do,
David Leopold
