Woodmere Art Museum

Arthur De Costa, 82, of Merion, a Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts teacher who painted the official portrait of former Mayor Frank Rizzo, died July 22 at Haverford Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. He was recovering from a broken hip suffered in April and a subsequent heart attack. Respected for his still-life, portrait and figurative oil paintings, Mr. De Costa was a faculty member at the academy from 1966 to 1988. "De Costa's classes were filled to overflowing, and he continued to mentor many artists," said Albert Gury, chairman of the academy's painting department.

Pennsylvania impressionism is better known in our metropolitan area than the actual paintings these early 20th-century artists produced, an oversight that Woodmere Art Museum is trying to correct in its current exhibit, "Pennsylvania Impressionism. " Of course, impressionism was a school of painting, really a revolution in painting, that started in France and spread to other lands in the late 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century. Artists of this persuasion aimed to represent things on canvas according to their own personal impressions, without regard to generally recognized rules, and while painting outdoors in an effort to render changing effects of light and reflection with striking immediacy.

The human figure has always fascinated oil painter Mark Reitz, but not in the classical sense. Rather, he stretches the boundaries of representational art, making bodies a blur in his dreamy, illusive abstractions. That is apparent in pieces such as Group Study, an oil-on-paper work that recently won the Violet Oakley Prize in the Woodmere Art Museum's 54th annual Members' Exhibition, on view at the Chestnut Hill museum through Aug. 28. Reitz's painting is among the work of more than 300 museum members exhibiting in the non-juried, multimedia show, which includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints.

Although he's a relatively obscure figure in standard histories of American art, James D. Smillie (1833-1909) was a superb reproductive engraver and etcher. Abundant evidence of his skill emerges in a retrospective of his graphic work at the Woodmere Art Museum, organized by director Michael W. Schantz. As Schantz points out in a catalogue essay, Smillie's career paralleled the development of printmaking in the 19th century. He began as a line engraver and at the turn of the century became a leading figure in the etching revival.

John Lear's art might have saved him from harm's way during World War II. A niece, Susan MacBride, recalled yesterday that when he was assigned to Fort Riley, Kan., "the generals and the officers found out he was an artist [and] diverted his talents to doing portraits of the officers and their families. " Later, she said, he was assigned to illustrate military manuals, booklets and charts for service-wide distribution. On Wednesday, John Brock Lear Jr., 98, artist and teacher, died of pneumonia at Chestnut Hill Hospital.

The recent traveling exhibition of baseball images called "Diamonds Are Forever" demonstrated that while sports and recreation have long been popular subjects for American artists, they have produced relatively little memorable art. "Sport in Art" at the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill reaches a similar conclusion. Its scope - from baseball and football to rowing, tennis and auto racing - is much broader, but it, too, leads a viewer to conclude that sports do not translate readily into high art. Television and the other mass media have made even the most obscure sports commonplace, and they document them in such detail that there isn't much left for art to chew on. But it's also likely that few artists have been able to dig below the surface of these mass entertainments, which is why most sporting art seems cliched.

My choices for the weekend include a concert by the Leontovych String Quartet, an ensemble that had a distinguished reputation in its homeland, the Ukraine. The quartet has been living in the Philadelphia area for about a year now, attempting to rebuild and begin anew in the States. Its well-balanced program tomorrow promises some scintillation: the Mozart Quartet in B flat, Valentin Silverstrov's Quartet No. 1, (composed in 1964), the Schubert Quartetsatz and Philadelphia composer Maurice Wright's Quartet (1983)

Among the female etchers of the last quarter of the 19th century were some of the greatest American artists of their day. But neither in their lifetime nor in the years since their death has the American public gotten to know them well. Now Woodmere Art Museum is the host of a major traveling show, "American Women of the Etching Revival," organized for Atlanta's High Museum of Art by the scholar Phyllis Peet. It will be strange if the public still withholds its cheer, for there is a timeless quality about much of this artistry that should win popularity in any age. The etchings in the show have been lent from museums and private collections.

Ahoy, matey! Tie up the Jolly Roger, put on an eye patch, and head to Pirate Night at the Lights of Liberty Show tonight. Learn about the history of pirates in Philadelphia and participate in some swashbuckling activities at the free event, which will precede the light show. Pirates didn't just cavort in the Caribbean. The most notorious of them all, Blackbeard, is rumored to have buried some of his treasure on the banks of the Delaware River. "The pirate spirit will continue through the show," said Ann Meredith, executive producer of Lights of Liberty.

Peter Moran (1841-1914) was one of our nation's earliest and best etchers. A hundred years ago, this painter and printmaker was a renowned specialist in animal subjects. Considering how appealing some of his works are, it is a wonder we forgot this English-born local artist so completely - more so, it seems, than other deserving members of the Moran family of artists. The Woodmere Art Museum now attempts to make up for this neglect by presenting the first Peter Moran solo exhibit in modern times.

Elaine Kurtz came to William R. Valerio's attention about a year ago when he saw one of her paintings in the home of Nancy Posel, a longtime friend of the artist's and a supporter of Woodmere Art Museum. The recently appointed Woodmere director was so intrigued by the work that he decided that Kurtz, who died in 2003 at 75, was an artist deserving of a major exhibition. Although represented in the collections of four Washington museums (Corcoran, Hirshhorn, National Gallery, National Museum of American Art)

From the top of the tower of the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill, Bill Valerio can look out over the treetops to a spectacular and far-reaching view. It's a tantalizing sight that matches his vision for Woodmere, an institution dedicated to Philadelphia art whose dusty reins he grabbed a bit more than a year ago, leaving behind a lofty perch at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. To say that he has given the old gal a kick in the sides is an understatement; under Valerio, it's been off to the races for Woodmere ever since.

After being closed for repairs during the summer, Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill has reopened with an impressive burst of energy, in the form of two colorfully affirmative exhibitions about Philadelphia modernist painting. One show examines the career of Mary G.L. Hood and, to a lesser extent, that of her daughter, Agnes Hood Miller. You might not have heard of either, but you'll be pleased to meet them through this display. The other offering, "Flirting With Abstraction," locates the art of Hood and Miller within the broader context of a local cohort of abstract painters, including some working today.

Sunday Haves and have-nots Based on a sensational 1906 murder, Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel An American Tragedy uses the story of a poor boy whose conflict between his ambitions and his passions leads to a violent end as a commentary on social and economic differences that has echoes for our times. Dreiser, who lived for a time in Strawberry Mansion and loved to take long walks down Ridge Avenue to see the mills of Manayunk, was friendly with Hedgerow Theatre founder Jasper Deeter and cooperated with an adaptation of his novel there in 1935.

"Let's go to work," Leo Weisz snaps at 10 o'clock sharp, and all talking ends, replaced by the scratch of pencil and pastel against paper. Eggs take shape on sketch pads, rough ovals that start to bear the likeness of Sheri Keshishian, the model for this morning's drawing class at the Green Hill condo in Wynnewood. She was selected for the honor because at 54, she's one of the building's youngsters and best at sitting still. Eight artists face her in a semicircle, their ages ranging from 72 to 99. The patriarch of the group is Weisz.

Harry Sefarbi, 92, of Powelton, a painter and teacher at the Barnes Foundation for more than 50 years, died Monday at Penn Rittenhouse Hospice. It was his 54th wedding anniversary and Yom Kippur - "a powerful day to die," said his wife, Ruth Fishman Sefarbi. The couple met in Paris in the early 1950s. He was studying art, and she was studying French and literature. Eccentric art collector Albert C. Barnes had given Mr. Sefarbi an itinerary of things he should see and do in France.

One of Philadelphia's longest-serving arts leaders is stepping down. Michael W. Schantz, director and chief executive officer of the Woodmere Art Museum since 1981, will leave his post Dec. 31. Asked why he was resigning now, just as the Chestnut Hill museum was expanding, the 61-year-old Schantz said: "Before I get any older, I'd like to take on another challenge. I like the idea of finding another start-up situation. What I'm good at is . . . putting the infrastructure in place.

"Contemporary Voices," Woodmere's 69th annual juried exhibit and one of our region's most venerable open shows, makes good its reputation with a roomy, unhurrying 102-piece show by 96 artists. These exhibitors made the cut from among 223 area artists who entered 450 all-media works. Plentiful are artists well-accustomed to seeking public recognition and status through regional competition. Interesting here is that quite a few other artists seem new to the practice. And among the latter, although their art is more private in character with a certain reticence, sometimes that very reticence allows something of the spirit of our age to come through, almost without their knowing it. Partly, this happens simply because times are a-changing.

James Monroe Camp, 78, of Pennypack Park, an internationally renowned sculptor who once carved a wooden barstool for Frank Sinatra and a menorah for Sammy Davis Jr., died of heart failure at Frankford Hospital-Torresdale Campus on Nov. 16, the same day a sculpture of his was featured on the front of The Inquirer's Arts & Entertainment section. Born in Sharon, Pa., Mr. Camp was an Army drill sergeant during the Korean War. He moved to Camden in the early 1950s with his wife, Francis Ann Dillard, and their son, James Jr. Mr. Camp earned a dental technician's certificate and worked for a short time with his late brother Hubert, who was a dentist.

John Lear's art might have saved him from harm's way during World War II. A niece, Susan MacBride, recalled yesterday that when he was assigned to Fort Riley, Kan., "the generals and the officers found out he was an artist [and] diverted his talents to doing portraits of the officers and their families. " Later, she said, he was assigned to illustrate military manuals, booklets and charts for service-wide distribution. On Wednesday, John Brock Lear Jr., 98, artist and teacher, died of pneumonia at Chestnut Hill Hospital.