We began our celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Ben Solowey’s birth in 2000 with this special exhibition that featured paintings and sculptures from almost every stage of his career, with a special emphasis on the work he created in Bucks County from 1936 until his death in 1978. It reunited a number of works from museums with pieces from the Studio’s collection, and presented a welcome opportunity to see what critics, collectors and fellow artists have admired in his work for 100 years.

Ben Solowey has often been called an "artist's artist" for among his most ardent admirers are fellow artists of various styles and mediums. There is something in Ben’s honest and direct approach to his subject, whether it is a portrait, landscape or still life, that other artists find refreshing. Painter John Foster wrote that Ben "was one of the great artists of our era." New Hope artist George Sotter enjoyed Solowey still lifes, calling one canvas "one of the loveliest we have seen."

His art defies easy categorization. He was never the member of any school of movement of painters. He was the rare individual who did exactly what he wanted. In a 1939 interview he said that Cezanne, Delacroix and the Early Moderns "injected fresh air into painting, and elements of those artists echo through his work. He witnessed the original Impressionist movement in Paris in 1924, two years before Monet died, and while he incorporated the style in his palette, he never defined himself as an Impressionist.

Born in Warsaw in 1900, Ben moved with his family to Russia in 1907, before immigrating to Philadelphia in 1914. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1920 to 1924 on a Graphic Sketch Club scholarship awarded by Edward Redfield, who must have recognized a raw talent that could benefit from training. After his trip to Europe, Ben returned to Philadelphia for a short period before moving to Manhattan in 1928.

Solowey routinely exhibited his paintings in national and international exhibitions alongside those of Matisse, Picasso, de Kooning, and other legends at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Academy of Design and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. From 1929 to 1942 Ben defined an era in his striking charcoal portraits of the luminaries of the performing arts. Commissioned by The New York Times and Herald-Tribune, He drew from life rather than rely on the photographs that many of his contemporaries simply re-drew. He was a pioneer in the use of halftone in newspaper reproduction, and spawned a generation that emulated his style.

At the height of his substantial acclaim for both his paintings and his theatre work, Ben left the comforts of Fifth Avenue for the countryside of Bucks County. Here he would create some of his greatest work, even though the first seven years would be without electricity and running water on his property. He restored the farmhouse (c. 1765) on the 34-acre farm, furnishing it with his own recreations of classic furniture he admired in museums. He transformed the barn into a spacious studio which stands today filled with his artwork, a testament of his phenomenal talent. A true Renaissance Man, he produced award-winning canvases and sculptures while handling everything from cabinetmaking to plumbing; from masonry to gardening .

Ben’s paintings radiate a calm and luxurious world that soothes and pleases a viewer, yet his art was rooted in his direct observation of the environment around him. Ben offers us the luxury of contemplating a private paradise, a place of pleasurable ease and harmony that he has fashioned from an extraordinary life.

After Ben’s death, his late wife Rae insisted that his studio remain intact for the public to enjoy. The Studio’s mission is to preserve one of the jewels in the crown of Buck’s County’s artistic legacy: the work and workplace of Ben Solowey. We thank you all who joined us as we celebrated the Solowey Centennial.

David Leopold, Director
The Studio of Ben Solowey

Top: Pink Turban Rae
Oil On Canvas, 20 x 16. 1950