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. Drawings hang side by side with watercolors, monotypes, woodcuts, etchings, and pastels. We have created a novel way of seeing some double sided works as well, giving visitors a unique view of Ben’s restless need to create.
In the Main Studio, hang a number of oils that audiences will marvel at. Still lifes that date back to 1926 reveal that Ben had already mastered this genre at a young age, and several others in the room show that he only got better as he matured as an artist. Over the main wall, we have hung two remarkable portraits of close Solowey friends: artist Joseph Meierhans, a Swiss abstract artist who settled in Bucks County and opened a studio to showcase his work and his contemporaries; and writer Virginia Castleton, a long time Solowey friend who wrote a landmark profile of Rae for Prevention magazine and who would also write the appreciation to the historic retrospective at Woodmere Art Museum in 1979.
Fall is starting to make itself known outside the studio as the green of summer is being replaced by the browns, reds, yellow and oranges of autumn. The fields that line the lane into the property have soybeans this year, and they have reached maturity and await harvesting. They come right up to our new parking area which nature itself is camouflaging.
We hope that you have received your invitation in the mail with its delightful 1934 portrait of Rae in a fur collar. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone on October 3rd both in the Studio to see the exhibition and down at the house for some home make baked goods.
David Leopold
Director
