Entering the gallery at the University City Arts League last week was like looking into a time capsule. The exhibit there, Hidden Gems of West Philadelphia, is from the collection of Sylvia Egnal, one of the UCAL founders and long time supporter. She’s almost 98!
The art on the walls reflects a number of bygone eras, a sort of time line of the interaction between Egnal’s taste and art world trends. It is to Egnal’s credit that some of it still looks fresh!
This is a show with a number of prints from big names–a Leger lithograph, an Andy Warhol silkscreen (from his Marimekko phase), a signed Rauschenberg poster, a Lichtenstein silkscreen, a Johns offset print. Never before had such a star-studded cast crossed the Arts League’s threshold, observed UCAL Executive Director Edward Epstein!
The collection also reflects a mix of personal loyalties. There’s work from a number of Philadelphia artists, from Elizabeth Osborne (she has solo shows right now up at PAFA and Locks) to Tremain Smith to the two Morrises–Morris Berd and Morris Blackburn. The exhibit also includes several works by Egnal’s son Stuart, a Penn MFA who died at 26 in 1966, just as his career was getting started.
About a quarter of the 45 works in the show sold, and brought in about $10,000, quite a successful show for a community arts center and perhaps the most successful in UCAL history.
The exhibit will be up tomorrow, 1-5 p.m.
