Ellsworth Kelly

In addition to such artists' cooperatives as Momenta, the recent proliferation of exhibition spaces in Philadelphia has produced several galleries set up by artists on their own premises. One of the newest of these "labor of love" galleries is Red Column Studio, run by Yarrott Benz at 2101 Lombard St. Another, a few months older, is the Larry Becker at 43 N. Second St., operated by Becker and Heidi Nivling. Both galleries' public hours are limited, although you can get in by appointment - or, most of the time at Becker, by ringing the bell.

The role of collectors in preserving our art heritage needs to be acknowledged occasionally, and the Main Line Art Center has done just that with its fresh and lively new exhibit, "Main Line Collects: Distinctive Choices. " This display of post-1950 art borrowed from 19 private collections stretching from Bala Cynwyd to Berwyn features 37 works in all media, most of them praiseworthy. Four of these collections were lent anonymously. To the guest curator, Mary Anne Dutt Justice, a former Philadelphia Museum of Art staffer, goes credit for putting the display together.

The artist Ellsworth Kelly was there. Joseph Neubauer, the Barnes Foundation vice chairman and donor extraordinaire, was also there. So were dozens of skilled movers, installers, crane operators, and art handlers. A swarm of project managers and members of the Kelly entourage talked and looked on in the shadow of a giant yellow crane angling from the parking lot of the Barnes' new gallery on the Parkway. They had all turned out Monday morning, waiting, as the artist put it, to "bring something back to Philadelphia" - a monumental sculpture by Kelly, his 40-foot-high, eight-ton, stainless steel The Barnes Totem . The Neubauer Family Foundation made the acquisition possible for the Barnes and, as Joseph Neubauer said, for "everyone in the city passing by. " It is the first public work installed here by Kelly, 88 and an undisputed master of American art, since his massive Transportation Building Lobby Sculpture was quietly removed from the old Greyhound office building on Market Street and sold in 1996.

Exhibitions of artists' books, which are made as art, are typically frustrating experiences, because the books can't be handled and usually can't be displayed in a way that provides reasonable access. However, the gallery at Arcadia University offers devotees of the genre full immersion, with the most imaginative and satisfying show of artists' books I've ever seen. "Desire Admire Acquire" consists of 150 books published during the last 40 years, displayed on a table-high shelf that rings the gallery.

Painter Jay DeFeo (1929-1989) was always highly regarded in the San Francisco Bay area, where she lived from her college days in Berkeley to her death from lung cancer at the age of 60. But although she had appeared in the landmark show "Sixteen Americans" at the Museum of Modern Art in 1959, her reputation didn't travel much beyond the San Francisco art world. ("Sixteen Americans," organized by MoMA curator Dorothy Miller, also included Frank Stella, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth Kelly and Louise Nevelson, which turned out to be prestigious company.

In an unassuming gallery on the first floor of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a special exhibition is showcasing two of the greatest works ever created by artists in America. Both are inextricably bound to the cultural history and identity of Philadelphia - and both nearly disappeared from the city in recent years via out-of-town sales. But Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic (1875) and Augustus Saint-Gaudens' Angel of Purity (1902) remain here, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of museum president Anne d'Harnoncourt, who died unexpectedly in June.

An exhibition of wall sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly - including a large piece that once graced the old Greyhound terminal at 17th and Market Streets - will be presented at the Barnes Foundation from May 4 through Sept. 2, Barnes officials announced Thursday. It will be the first show of non-foundation works at the new Barnes on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The initial special exhibition included foundation works not regularly on public view. "We are thrilled to inaugurate our program of contemporary exhibitions with a presentation of works by Ellsworth Kelly, an acknowledged master of the 20th and 21st centuries," said Derek Gillman, Barnes president and director.

Bernie Mason spent World War II moving Army tanks, sometimes picking them up and setting them down with his bare hands. He's not superhuman. And the tanks weren't some ultralight secret weapon. It was combat trickery. As a 21-year-old lieutenant, Mason helped lead a handpicked unit of artists and creative thinkers who deployed and arranged highly detailed, inflatable rubber tanks - and trucks, jeeps, and artillery - to fool the Germans into thinking the Americans had more firepower than they actually did or that the equipment was somewhere other than where it really was. Officially, the unit was the 23d Headquarters Special Troops.

An exhibition of wall sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly - including a large piece that once graced the old Greyhound terminal at 17th and Market Streets - will be presented at the Barnes Foundation from May 4 through Sept. 2, Barnes officials announced Thursday. It will be the first show of non-foundation works at the new Barnes on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The initial special exhibition included foundation works not regularly on public view. "We are thrilled to inaugurate our program of contemporary exhibitions with a presentation of works by Ellsworth Kelly, an acknowledged master of the 20th and 21st centuries," said Derek Gillman, Barnes president and director.

Watching hundreds of people gather around his wife at the Philadelphia Museum of Art the other night, 69-year-old Gene Gladstone thought about all the evenings he and Kaki had poured some wine and talked about their days. Gene, a lawyer, would take a minute or two to sum up his workday. "The rest of the night, she'd entertain me with hers," he said. And why wouldn't Kaki Gladstone have endless stories to tell, after 45 years working in volunteer services at the museum, the last 28 as head of a department that has 686 volunteers of one sort or another?