VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
Zelda Edelson: Artist Retrospective &
Legacy Exhibition
In honor of Zelda Edelson (1929 - 2021)
This virtual exhibition is a companion to Zelda Edelson: Color in the Moment
presented at the Old City Jewish Art Center in 2018.
Zelda Edelson, Color in the Moment installation image, 2018. Curated by Amie Potsic Art Advisory.
“My paintings are full of color, feeling, and movement. They are lyrical like a song, strong like a knot, and intricate like a spider’s web.”
Color in the Moment featured Zelda Edelson, a prolific abstract painter who created her own technique to enable her to paint from a walker used for balance. Creating something positive from challenging circumstances, her paintings are colorful and evocative. Edelson began each painting with a gesture of the arm to create the first mark with her palette knife. The paint began to flow and Edelson became invigorated, losing herself in the process. She painted on the areas of the canvas she could reach first. Then turning the painting, she accessed the previously unreachable portions to complete it. When each painting was finished, Edelson enjoyed the process of bringing her diverse background to bear as she writes insightful titles for each work. Sharing her love of painting through gesture, color, and form, Edelson’s work reveals a voice that is both seasoned and spontaneous.
Zelda Edelson was born in Philadelphia on October 18, 1929. Edelson traced her interest in art and painting to an experimental art class she took while at Girls High taught by distinguished artist and teacher Jack Bookbinder. This first introduction to modern art had a profound effect on her, which she would act on many years later. As a young woman, Edelson was a bit of a radical, frequently going to faraway parts of town to see a foreign movie or check out a bookstore. When she completed high school, she went to the University of Chicago, where she graduated with a major in English Literature. After marrying Marshall Edelson, she eventually moved to Connecticut. There she began her twenty-year career as Editor and Head of Publications for Yale University’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. In her role as editor, Edelson used her artistic sensibility to create skillfully produced photographs and illustrations to complement the natural history articles of the Yale faculty.
When she retired in 1995, Edelson decided to focus on painting. She also moved back to Philadelphia, to her roots, where she still has many family members. Zelda has exhibited her work at the Woodbridge Town Center and the Creative Arts Center in Connecticut as well as at Gallery Q2, The Jewel of India, Art for the Cash Poor, and Main Line Art Center in the Philadelphia area. She received an Honorable Mention award in the 70th Annual Members’ Exhibition at Main Line Art Center in October of 2007. At eighty-nine years old, Edelson lived in Haverford, PA, where she continued to be a prolific painter and had her first solo exhibition at the Old City Jewish Art Center.
ZELDA EDELSON: ARTIST RETROSPECTIVE
& LEGACY EXHIBITION
© Zelda Edelson, Calif’s Palace, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”, 2018
© Zelda Edelson, Where the Waves Meet, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”, 2014
© Zelda Edelson, Romance In A Winter Light, Acrylic on canvas, 24” x 18”, 2012
© Zelda Edelson, Interrupted, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”, 2018
© Zelda Edelson, Inferno, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”, 2017
© Zelda Edelson, Revelations, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”, 2018
© Zelda Edelson, It’s Raining Eggplants and Oranges, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”, 2018
© Zelda Edelson, Skip to my Lou Seaside, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”, 2016
© Zelda Edelson, Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”, 2004
© Zelda Edelson, Shrine, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”, 2007
A Poem by Zelda Edelson
ARCHIVE_______
My archive
May not mean
A thing to you
But to me
It hints at
What I tried to do
Maybe even
Succeeded at
In a small way
Possibly even more
In the
Consummate score
Whatever it is
I claim it
However you
Frame it
Put the blame
In my name.
I can’t save it all
These piles and stacks
Of papers
These half-read books
These reminders of actions
Inordinate attractions
Refractions of
Aspiration
Inspiration
Initiation
Records of effort
Ideas shirked
Failed attempts
Stages of work
Photos poorly posed
Scars and scratches
Of encounters
Aspirations
Peaks unclimbed
Songs unsung
No longer sublime
But still they are mine
Deserved to be
Preserved
For when I’m not here
A piece of creator’s pride
Trying to keep alive
What once may have lived
What once failed to give
A completed work
Things put away
The material
Of lost dreams
Unrealized schemes.
What was it all about?
Whisper
No need to shout
Keep it
Reap it
In this dim
Storage place
Half-forgotten
To come again
Another day
For someone else
Who might appreciate
This unclaimed matter
For which
I did not stay.
It’s over
Except in the creator’s heart
Whether dead or alive
This stuff is me
Would someone see it
Use it
Now once
A part of me.
--Zelda Edelson
Publication
PRESS
Painter Pushes 90, Keeps Active
By Jesse Bernstein
Zelda Edelson’s solo exhibition in November at the Old City Jewish Art Center wasn’t the first time that she’s showed her paintings to the world. In fact, the 89-year-old West Philadelphia native has had her work displayed in Ardmore and in her one-time home of Woodbridge, Conn. But this show was certainly her most unique.
“It’s really meaningful,” Edelson said. “It gave me a view of my paintings that I never experienced before, simply because you don’t have enough space to show stuff in most places.” (Edelson often paints on 30-inch-by-40-inch canvases, emulating the scale of some of her favorite painters.)
About the Old City Jewish Art Center
Founded in 2006, the Old City Jewish Art Center (OCJAC) was envisioned as a platform to build the Jewish community through the arts. Growing steadily since then, the OCJAC gallery has become an exhibition space for serious artists, holds monthly First Friday art receptions with a Jewish twist, and provides social and Jewish holiday programs throughout the year. OCJAC is now a landmark gallery in the Philadelphia art scene and is the only gallery dedicated to Jewish artistic expression and cultural exchange in Philadelphia. Using the arts as a springboard, the Old City Jewish Art Center advances and promotes the universal messages of Judaism and spirituality to the broadest possible audience.
Color in the Moment was on view at the Old City Jewish Art Center from November 2 – 30, 2018 and was curated by Amie Potsic.