The Letter

2022 marks the 30th anniversary of The Studio of Ben Solowey presenting regular interpretative exhibitions at the Solowey Studio. In that time we have presented 40 exhibitions displaying more than 1,000 works by Ben. There have been paintings in oil, watercolor, casein, and gouache. Drawings in charcoal, pen, lithographic crayon, conté crayon, pencil, and marker. […]

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The Earliest Solowey Drawings from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts     The earliest works of Ben Solowey that remain today are those from his time at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). Ben enrolled in classes in 1919, beginning his formal study of art that would lead to his lifelong […]

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Early Solowey Landscapes of Chester Springs It is well known that Ben won a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in a painting competition judged by Edward Redfield and Alice Kent Stoddard in 1919. His three plus years there were Ben’s only formal art education, although he studied art history and techniques […]

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This is my favorite time in preparing an exhibition. Almost everything is up on the wall, and what for months have been ideas now become reality in installation. The Second Studio, with a stunning array of works on paper looks wonderful. Portraits of Rae inter mingle with landscapes, theater portraits, still lifes and figure works. […]

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The Art Institute of Chicago is one of America’s oldest, and most prestigious museums. It’s collection is filled with masterpieces of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art; Old Masters; European and American decorative arts; Asian art; modern and contemporary art; architecture, industrial and graphic design; and American art such as Grant Wood’s famous “American Gothic” and Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.” For three-quarters of a century, the […]

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Japonisme was the term used to describe the influence of Japanese art on fashion and aesthetics on Western culture. Like many artists of his generation, Ben was influenced by Japanese woodcuts and had several hanging in his home, and through the European interpretation of the woodcuts in the work of Impressionist artists such as Manet, […]

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I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer. The weather has cooperated, and here on the farm it has been as lush as ever. The response to my new book on Al Hirschfeld and its companion exhibition, as well as for my Grateful Dead exhibition in Chicago has been very gratifying. I am always delighted […]

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The influence of Gilbert and Sullivan can be seen and heard all around us. Musicians and lyricists alike were influenced by the duo, including songwriters and composers from Irving Berlin to Andrew Lloyd Weber. Gilbert’s lyrics set the stage for the American musical to be born, with songs directly referencing the plot and addressing both […]

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I’m pretty lucky. I open exhibitions at museums around the country almost as much as most people open their refrigerator. Just last week I was in Huntsville, Alabama to open a new exhibition. This Studio show is my third of the year, and I will organize or re-organize two more shows before the year’s out. […]

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After last summer’s opening, I returned to work on four different shows that all opened in October 2013 in three different cities. As many of you know I work as an independent curator for museums around the country and in Europe, and last year turned into a “perfect storm” of wonderful opportunities that I could […]

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