Full Nelson



Tender is the Night (1982) by Leonard Nelson, oil on canvas.

"…a quiet, yet formidable, force… in the evolution of 20th-century American art…" That’s the description on the flap of Leonard Nelson: A Life in Art (Rizzoli) by Princeton scholar Sam Hunter, a new book about a late Philadelphia artist who was so quiet a force that you could be forgiven for not recognizing his name. But along with Hunter’s book, two major retrospectives this spring are reintroducing his pioneering talent to the region. Last month, the Wayne Art Center held the first major showing of his works since his death in 1993 at the age of 81, and on June 8 the Gratz Gallery in New Hope opens a monthlong show to benefit Nelson’s alma mater, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (he was also affiliated with another major academic arts institution, Moore College of Art, where he taught for nearly 30 years). An early explorer of the passionate, gestural style that came to be known as Abstract Expressionism (of which Jackson Pollock was the best-known proponent), he also carried over into his painting a fierce, lifelong dedication to peace and social justice. And the paintings of his latter years are shimmering with color, recalling the Impressionists’ handling of paint but with an exuberant, even playful energy all his own — formidable, yes, but hardly quiet.

—David Warner

Leonard Nelson: A Life in Art, June 8-July 8, Gratz Gallery & Conservation Studio, 30 W. Bridge St., New Hope, PA. Opening reception with book signing by Sam Hunter, June 8, 6-9 p.m. 215-862-4300, www.gratzgallery.com.