September 21, 2006 Issue                                       

Click Here

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

From fine dresses to fine art, Hillers are eye-OK
by MARY PRICE LEEand RICHARD S. LEE

Carol Schwartz with a sampling of the Gallery’s 2,000 vintage French posters. (Photos by Richard S. Lee)

To enter The Carol Schwartz Gallery is to be greeted with a riot of color. The Gallery’s art is eclectic; something for everyone. There are Dufy-type paintings with dabs of brilliance. There is traditional art, such as the oil painting of a chair caught in sharp contrasts of light and shade. There are art exhibits, too, including “Around the Town,” new works by the renowned watercolorist, Howard Watson, opening October 6 and running through the 27th — in all, three floors of paintings, posters, Judaica, jewelry and crafts that could rival the collections of a modest museum.

Extensive? Yes. Intimidating? Hardly. Carol Schwartz echoes this idea: “Don’t be scared of art galleries. We especially like to appeal to young people and those who want to know more about art.”

How did it all begin?

Carol Schwartz, a vivacious lady of 60 with a winning smile, and her husband, Elliot, 64, an articulate and interesting man, have been to Israel an astonishing 18 times in 10 years. Their Israeli travels began almost 30 years ago; Elliot and Carol were on a United Jewish Appeal mission to Israel, and they fell in love with it. Later flights became work-related for Elliot, a dress manufacturer — an interesting career for someone whose college major was Art History! He did business with several Israeli dress manufacturers.

On these trips, Carol began to develop her lifelong passion for Israeli art. The seeds of this interest were sown through her friendship with Arona Reiner, an artist whose work is still featured at The Carol Schwartz Gallery. (Arona and her husband, Michael, are the Schwartzes’ oldest and best friends.)

During these years, when not traveling, Carol was teaching “art goes to school,” raising three daughters, and selling antiques from home as she amassed a dramatic and meaningful collection of Israeli art. Despite the success of an art sale she staged at their country club, Carol and Elliot were really looking for a shop location for Elliot’s fine dresses when they scouted Chestnut Hill in 1990. All that changed when they found 101 Bethlehem Pike, at Chestnut Hill Avenue. Their plan morphed from fine dresses to fine art — but not framing. That plan, too, changed when a framing business directly across Bethlehem Pike closed its doors. As the final brick in the wall, Elliot retired after 31 years in the dress business.

“We sold only Israeli art at first, and it’s still closest to my heart,” Carol says. “We soon started going to Art Expo in New York, a giant, idea-generating art event. We began adding the work of Expo exhibitors and local artists to our Israeli collection. We will buy several pieces at a time of a regional or national artist whose work we like, and we take local artists’ work on consignment. A large inventory encourages sales.”

That “large inventory” is an understatement. The Carol Schwartz Gallery is “three floors in motion,” as Carol says, with art hung on the walls and, in places, leaning against them. The display windows are constantly being changed, and now that they have bought the rambling building, they even have a white-walled display gallery in what was (and is) the basement, as well as on the ground floor (along with the framing workshop) and throughout the second-floor rooms. Unlike most galleries that focus their space on one or two artists for a month at a time, Carol and Elliot Schwartz prefer ongoing artistic variety and generous selection. An exception will be the forthcoming Howard Watson show.

Once there were two Carol Schwartz Galleries. Before they could buy their present building and occupy all its floors, they leased the former Maloumian Rugs location next to Kilian’s Hardware. “I thought I was missing something by not being in the heart of the Hill,” Carol says. “We had two floors of art, but what should have been there was always here, and we were running back and forth between the two galleries like maniacs.” After four years, when the landlord wanted to double the rent, the two became an expanded one when they purchased the Bethlehem Pike location.

As for marketing, their buyers include regional homeowners, plus customer enclaves in Cherry Hill and Villanova, owners of seashore houses especially in and around Atlantic City, and customers in Florida.

The gallery does a great deal of promotion on the Internet. They consult on art to individuals and corporations, frame paintings, work with designers and decorators (the latter, Carol’s not-so-secret passion). They provide art for fund-raisers, and help hold live and silent auctions. They lecture to groups using their own art, and provided paintings for Philadelphia magazine’s 2006 Designer Show House (see the September issue).

“Everybody has something on their walls, so you’re looking at a huge market. Even posters at $30 can jazz up walls,” Elliot says, leading neatly to vintage French posters. These are Elliot’s passion, and once, the passion of Jules Charet, who produced over 1,100 posters in the 1890s. Charet, the father of the Paris poster movement, commissioned original poster art for advertisers and for the Paris Opera. Toulouse-Lautrec and other prominent artists were among his suppliers. Those printed posters are now highly collectible — and the Gallery boasts more than 2,000 of them.

This came about when The Carol Schwartz Gallery became a partner with the leading vintage French poster authority and collector, Lucy Broydo of Bryn Mawr. Broydo has catalogued over 1,100 posters produced by Jules Charet. This exciting endeavor is Elliot’s favorite gallery activity. Poster displays and cases for their safe storage take up much of the gallery’s second floor.

The Schwartzes are quite involved in activities on the Hill and beyond. Their entry, Duck a L’Orange, a nice, fat fellow who would not look out of place waddling down the Avenue, is one of the 50 painted plastic animal stars of AbZOOlutely Chestnut Hill. Carol and Elliot were instrumental in attracting the artists who donated their talents to adorn the antelopes and zap the zebras. The gallery held the Children’s Day of Art on September 17 for AbZOOlutely, too.

Their community involvement also includes Chestnut Hill Rotary, the Business Association, the Black & White Ball, Run for the Hill of It, and fund-raising and art framing for the Morris Arboretum. Elliot is also Vice-President of the Philadelphia Theater Company and is deeply involved in the construction of their new theater at Broad and Pine, along the Avenue of the Arts. Their daughters all went to Flourtown’s Carson Valley School, and they help raise funds for it.

Two final questions: One, how do they feel about competition? “A community is better off with more art galleries,” Elliot says. “They serve as a magnet, just as restaurants do.”

Finally, is Carol sentimental about her art? “I can’t sell art I don’t like. And every now and then I do sell something I wish I’d kept!”

The Carol Schwartz Gallery, 101 Bethlehem Pike, at Chestnut Hill Avenue ( 215-242-4510), is open most days; call for hours. On the Web: www.carolschwartzgallery.com.