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Ben Solowey is a hit in the West End

Apr 15th, 2007 by

Ben Solowey helped Noel Coward return to London in style when the180px-albery_theatre_london_postcard.jpg Albery Theatre off on London’s Leicester Square was renamed the Noel Coward Theatre in the Fall of 2006.

Built as the New Theatre in 1903 by Sir Charles Wyndham to house his acting company, a 20 year old Noel Coward had his first play produced in the West End at the theater, I’ll Leave it to You in 1920. While the play was not a hit, it was the beginning of Coward’s illustrious career. In 1924, George Bernard Shaw’s classic St. Joan opened at the theater. In 1930, John Gielgud’s legendary production of Hamlet played there. During the Blitz, it became the home to the Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells Theatre Companies which stayed there until 1950 when their theaters were rebuilt. Perhaps the best known show to premiere at the theater was the musical Oliver!, which ran for 2,618 performances and became a hit around the world.

cowardlawrence.jpgWhen Cameron Mackintosh took over the theater, he undertook extensive renovations, including refurbishing the interior. To commemorate Coward’s long standing partnership with Gertrude Lawrence, Mackintosh acquired a lithograph of Ben’s wonderful 1937 portrait of Coward and Lawrence in Tonight at 8:30.

Ben drew Coward four years earlier with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in Design for Living.designfor-living33122.jpg

Should you see the current production of Avenue Q on your next trip to London, stop by and view the portrait.

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Sword play and Ben Solowey

Apr 12th, 2007 by

We just received an inquiry from Prof. Tokuichi Tanaka from Nihontsutsuitokujiro.jpg University in Shizuoka, Japan regarding Ben’s portrait of Tokujiro Tsutsui, a Japanese actor/manager who came with his repertory company to America in January 1930 to present 16 Ken-Geki dramas in California and New York. Ken-Geki was a style of theater, a sword play that he created. His company played 15 performances on Broadway in March 1930.

Ben also drew the Chinese actor Mei Lan Fang less than a monthlan-fangmei30217.jpg before. Time magazine has an interesting article comparing the two styles of drama from Asia.

Prof. Tanaka is doing research on the oversea performances of Tokujiro Tsutsui’s Theatre Troupe and their impact on cultural relations for a class he teaches.

The portrait of Tokujiro Tsutsui was included in our Fall 2005 exhibition of Ben’s Black and White work.

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From the Archives

Mar 6th, 2007 by

A photo from our archive. Ben Solowey by his home in 1966, photographed by close friends, Jay and Fanny Beck. This was probably taken after his near fatal heart attack that same year.
Ben Solowey, 1966

Click on the image to enlarge.

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The Studio of Ben Solowey Expands

Mar 6th, 2007 by

The Studio of Ben Solowey now has a new way to deliver the latest news about all things Solowey and Solowey-related. Whether it be exhibtions, appearances, mentions, or historical information, we will post the latest material here.

Scroll down to read all sorts of information about Ben Solowey and his work.

As always we welcome comments, criticism, advice, and suggestions.

We’ll see you when we do.

Continue Reading »

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About

Mar 6th, 2007 by

This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.

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Ben Solowey’s Show Business

Sep 2nd, 2006 by

 

This spring the Metropolitan Opera unveiled the latest addition to their remarkable portrait collection on view at the Opera House at Lincoln Center: Ben’s stunning portrait of Lawrence Tibbett in the premiere of Peter Ibbetson in 1930. The drawing, autographed by the famed tenor, was seen last summer here at the studio as part of the Eleanor Landis Smahl collection. The Met also borrowed Ben’s drawing of Lucrezia Bori also from the Peter Ibbetson premiere (and also autographed in approval by the singer). The Met has recently asked to extend the loan for the Bori portrait through the beginning of their new season.

Works were seen at a number of galleries, museums, and auction houses this summer, but this fall, the best place to see Solowey artwork is The Studio, where the Main Studio will have a new installation of Solowey paintings. There are two breathtaking large still lifes, Last Summer’s Bouquet, a colorful take on faded flowers in one of Ben’s hand carved frames; and Afterbloom, an autumnal tour de force.

There is a wonderful Self Portrait from 1925, probably painted immediately after Ben returned from his six month European sojourn. This painting speaks volumes of what he had seen, experienced, and where he was heading.

In keeping with the season, there are several Fall landscapes from Bucks County and other locales. an intimate 16 x 20 oil, simply titled Fall Landscape, shows a pastoral scene from 1935, the fall before the Solowey bought the farm in Bucks County.

Frank Capra, Rodgers and Hart and Noel Coward will also be in attendance in this installation.

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NEW SIDE OF BEN SOLOWEY REVEALED

Sep 1st, 2006 by

New exhibition showcases previously unseen Solowey photographs

September 30 – October 22, 2006
At the Studio of Ben Solowey


BEDMINSTER, PA — The Studio of Ben Solowey is pleased to announce a new exhibition SOMETHING DIFFERENT: Photographs by Ben Solowey 1924 – 1944, which is the first exhibition devoted to Ben Solowey’s photography. These recently discovered images have been assembled in a new show by guest curator, Barbara Swanda. The exhibition will open to the public on Saturday September 30th at the Solowey Studio in Bedminster, PA with a reception from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The installation will continue Saturdays and Sundays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., through October 22, 2006.“As is often the case, talented people frequently excel in more than one arena,” says Swanda. “Ben Solowey is a most notable example of this phenomenon. His reputation as an outstanding artist, portrait painter and sculptor are nationally known. However, his talents do not end there. He was also a skilled furniture and frame maker, gardener and, yes, a photographer.”Ben Solowey (1900–1978) shot and developed more than 700 photographs over the period of 1924 to 1944. These images were not used as visual reference for his easel paintings, but represent a previously unexplored part of his oeuvre.“His photographs caught my attention immediately. The images are wonderful on their own merit, but I was equally drawn to the element of surprise and insight in this work,” explains Swanda. “Solowey’s eye toward composition and light is readily apparent in the photos, but so is his curiosity and determination to master a new medium. He meticulously recorded the aperture settings, light sources, and atmospheric conditions for most shots, to continually perfect his craft. That’s why the thought of presenting a photography exhibit of a revered 20th century Bucks County oil painter grabbed my interest. Who knew?! Well, we did.”

“The images include a range of topics,” observes Swanda. “In this exhibition, the viewer accompanies Ben to Europe as a student in 1924, as well as Ben and Rae on their New England sojourns in the early 1930s. We witness their life in New York City, and endure the rehabilitation of their 18th century farmstead in Bucks County.

“The relatively small size of these contact print images—which Ben developed and printed himself—request the viewer to intimately examine their content. And, that appeals to me. I love making people stop; making them take a second, more attentive look at things that surround them. I love to have an element of surprise for the viewer. Make it memorable, fascinating, enlightening.”

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Ben Solowey’s Show Business

May 3rd, 2006 by

It has been a good spring for Solowey admirers. Ben’s work has been on view in a number of museums and galleries. Close to the Solowey Studio, one can go to the Sabine Rose Gallery in Doylestown, Pennsylvania to see four still lifes in their colorful still life show on right now.

The Metropolitan Opera just unveiled the latest addition to their remarkable portrait collection on view at the Opera House at Lincoln Center, Ben’s stunning portrait of Lawrence Tibbett in the premiere of Peter Ibbetson in 1930. The drawing, autographed by the famed tenor, was seen last summer here at the studio as part of the Eleanor Landis Smahl collection. The Met also borrowed Ben’s drawing of Lucrezia Bori also from the Peter Ibbetson premiere (and also autographed in approval by the singer).

In my Irving Berlin exhibition several Solowey Theater Portraits were featured. The Broadway exhibition, in both San Francisco and New York, included Fannie Brice and Ruth Etting in the Ziegfeld Follies, and director R.H. Burnside. The playwright/director George S. Kaufman has a starring role, albeit as a full size reproduction, in the Hollywood exhibition currently at the James A. Michener Art Museum, as well as in the book Irving Berlin’s Show Business.

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Rae Comes to New York

May 3rd, 2006 by

More than twenty years ago, the writer Helen Papashvilly, a long time friend of Rae’s, tried to coax an autobiography from Rae by asking her questions about her life in the voluminous correspondence they shared. What follows are lightly edited selections from those letters. In this fragment, Rae writes about her arrival in New York in the fall of 1929.

“Many years ago, my friend Ann Silver, fresh from Brooklyn Law School wrote me at my home in Harrisburg with her perennial question ‘When are you coming to New York to live?’ A question periodically answered by my mother’s answer-which-was-a-question ‘Who, at your age (20) goes to New York to live?’ – and proceeded to rest her case! But a year or 2 later — and I’ll never know what the catalyst was — I was stunned to hear her say ‘Well, if you think you can handle it, and I think you can, I’ll be able to say yes, etc.’ My friend Ann was ecstatic and it was agreed I was to live with the Family in the Bronx — her mother, father, teen age brother and herself. Well. On November 1, 1929 — only a few days after the financial world went mad, people simply walking out of windows into eternity — I found myself in New York, wondering what fortune I was really seeking! I’d come armed with a month’s worth of money before seriously looking for secretarial work — meanwhile to see if the city would look for me. The lawyer brother of a friend of ours from Reading had asked him to call me and when I returned to the Bronx that evening, was asked where, what and how, etc. and casually answered, ‘We had lunch at Sardi’s,’ Ann simply screamed! Little did I know, as they say, how inextricable our lives, Ben’s and mine, would be bound with Theatre and all the people therein. The Alex Gard caricatures, a whole wall of them of the Famous People, became very familiar in time – along with so much else, having to do with Theatre.”

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RAE SOLOWEY TURNS 100 AT THE SOLOWEY STUDIO

May 1st, 2006 by


New exhibition include nearly a half century of works that feature artist’s wife

June 3 – 25, 2006
At the Studio of Ben Solowey

BEDMINSTER, PA — The Studio of Ben Solowey is pleased to announce a new exhibition WOMAN ETERNAL: A Rae Solowey Centennial, which celebrates the birth of Rae Landis Solowey (1906 – 1990) and the forty eight years she posed for her husband Ben Solowey (1900 – 1978) for works in a wide range of media. The exhibition will open to the public on Sunday June 3rd at the Solowey Studio in Bedminster, PA with a reception from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The installation will continue Saturdays and Sundays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., through June 25, 2006.“More people have looked at — and loved — Rae Solowey than virtually anyone else in the Bucks County art scene,” say David Leopold, the Director of the Studio of Ben Solowey. “Whether in paintings, drawings, prints or sculptures, Ben Solowey found his primary model and muse in his wife Rae. And his works of her are instantly identifiable by so many people.Ben’s 1935 portrait of Rae in a green dress than is on permanent view at the Michener Museum in Doylestown is among the Museum’s signature works, and has frequently been cited as one of visitors’ and staff’s favorites.” The Michener Museum has put images of the imposing 45” x 36” oil on canvas on posters, cards, magnets, key chains, and packets of tea.

“Artist Albert Gold once referred to Rae as ‘Woman Eternal’ in Ben’s work, and I think he was right,” explains Leopold. “She represented a humanity in Ben’s work that was both beautiful and ethereal, which is how many people who knew her felt about her. Like Cezanne’s paintings of his wife, Ben found a constantly engaging subject to paint, draw, or sculpt, whether it was a portrait, a figure study, or nude. Rae was also part of his other work too. For instance, she often picked and arranged flowers from their garden that Ben painted in his award winning still lifes.”

This new installation of Solowey works will display Ben Solowey’s remarkable versatility in a wide variety of media including oils, watercolor, pastel, and printmaking. It will include old favorites as well as works never exhibited before.

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