THE THRILL OF IT ALL

#106: The Art Experience as Infotainment

The installation took more time than was expected, owing to the large number of small canvases in the show; each of which were configured in distinctive clusters, on the walls of the large open space. Marian Locks Gallery had just shifted locations—to an Italianate mansion on Washington Square Park. The space it had occupied for twenty years at 1524 Walnut Street space was taken over by the Goforth Rittenhouse Gallery—a short-lived venture by a fashionable gay couple. Philadelphia had a bustling art scene at that time, with clusters of galleries and alternative art spaces in Old City, on South Street, and near Rittenhouse Square. A number of credible venues were also scattered across the outlying suburbs.

Despite its proximity to New York, the Delaware Valley had developed a unique and distinctive art scene, that was incubated by half a dozen art schools, celebrated in regional museums, and rooted in the Pennsylvania Academy, New Hope, and Brandywine traditions. Art school faculty members that commuted the ninety miles from Manhattan told themselves the Philadelphia art scene was in New York’s orbit, when it was in fact quite self-sufficient. It had closer ties to Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington in many ways.