The Letter

Abstract Composition
Mixed media, 24 x 18 inches, c. 1949.

This unusual work was inspired, at least according to Rae Solowey, by a landmark Matisse retrospective held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1948. the exhibition had made a great impact on Ben and perhaps he saw how matisse evolved from traditional painting, in to a more modern abstract style. I doubt Ben ever considered not doing representational work, and indeed he thought many contemporary artists were “laughing up their sleeves” in their work because they could not draw. That was obviously not the case with Matisse, and perhaps that led Ben to want to experiment. He drew this work that shows the back of his easel using abstract shapes similar to the ones he had on rugs in the studio. Ben never exhibited this work and we’ve only exhibited this work twice over the years. First in 1997 in our Flights of Fancy exhibitions, and again in 2001 in our show on the modernist impulse in Ben’s work. Our still life show seemed like the right time to bring this experimental work out again after 13 years.

We are also proud to announce that on June 7th when we open our new exhibition, Still Lifes by Ben Solowey, we will have a limited edition catalogue featuring most of the works in the show. This handsome 11 × 8.5 inches, 20-page publication will be $30, and will only be available during the run of this exhibition.

To pre-order contact info@solowey.com or 215-795-0228.

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

White Gardenia and Pine Needles
Oil on canvas
25 x 30 inches, 1948

Rae Solowey once said that every time Ben looked out a window of his studio, he saw a new landscape to paint. He might have said the same thing about still lifes. For most of the 36 years Ben called the farm home, he grew flowers which he used in his painting. He rarely painted any still lifes in the winter with purchased flowers, although he did paint dried flowers from his garden.

When I look at this still life from 1948, I envision an artist anxious to paint his first still life of the season. He took the spring’s earliest bloom, the forsythia, and the ever present (and ever green) pine to make an early spring still life. The gardenia? That alas is cloth imitator, a fake flower that he employed to balance his picture. We still have all the elements of this picture here at the Studio of Ben Solowey. The forsythia, which at one time lined the creek the runs through the property is now down to one large bush. The pine trees that Ben planted still tower over the property. The gardenia, vase, and cloth are all still part of our collection here. Yet it is the sum of these things as transmuted by Ben into a beautiful work that feels as fresh today as any new bloom.

From Washington Jewish Week

Ann Leopold Kaplan, a health policy attorney who also had leadership roles in The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, died May 24. She was 50.

“If there was a hard issue to tackle, a project that needed forcefulness with a soft touch, hard work with effective guidance, you would go to Ann because she would bring all of that to the project and you knew that others would follow her leadership – because that is who Ann was,” longtime friend and colleague Lynn Shapiro Snyder said at Kaplan’s funeral, held May 26 at Congregation Beth El in Bethesda…

…Ann Leopold was born on Sept. 19, 1962, in Harrisburg, Pa. She received her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar. She received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

In 1987, she joined the national law firm Epstein Becker and Green, where Snyder is a senior member. “Ann grew from a talented starting lawyer, to being my partner and later, my client,” Snyder said.

She became a client after leaving EBG in 2004 to become vice president and deputy general counsel of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, the national trade association for the country’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology research companies.

President George W. Bush had just signed into law the Medicare Modernization Act providing a prescription drug benefit for Medicare beneficiaries, known as Medicare Part D. PhRMA needed “a health regulatory attorney who understood Medicare and managed care. Ann fit the bill,” Snyder said.

Kaplan was a member of the team that developed the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals that was approved in 2008.

“She was the ultimate multi-tasker,” Snyder said. “People like her get a lot of pleasure knowing they get the best use of their time while they’re alive. It’s not a burden. It’s a pleasure.”

“People would confide in her and she would care for them, and you’d have no idea how hectic her life was,” Harris said. “She would be the person who people would go to at a time like this.”

Ann Leopold Kaplan was the devoted mother of Jeremy, Ilana and Daphne; beloved wife of Lawrence; loving daughter of Marx S. and Joan Y. Leopold  of Harrisburg, Pa.; sister of Matthew (Cathy), John (Teresa), David (Laura), Debbie (Jonathan); daughter-in-law of Stewart and Lynn Kaplan of Tarpon Springs, Fla., sister- in-law of Elisa Kaplan Siegel; aunt, cousin, friend and colleague.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to LUNGevity Foundation, The Jewish Federation of G reater Washington or the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School.

Dear Friends,

It is with great sadness that I write to tell you that we will have to postpone the opening of the new exhibition, Bathers by Ben Solowey at the Studio of Ben Solowey from June 1st to June 8th, due to the sudden death of

Ben Solowey’s niece, and my sister, Ann Leopold Kaplan. We regret any inconvenience that this may cause you. We will open the show on Saturday, June 8th, and as usual, we will open the Solowey home and fill it with home baked goods. Our regular hours will continue on Saturdays and Sundays through June 16th, and then by appointment through August. This will be the only time the Solowey home is open this year, so we hope to see you now on June 8th.

We’ll see you when we do,

David Leopold, Director