When I emailed Geri Greinke-Mack to ask about the solo retrospective of art by her husband, Richard Mack, I received a most unusual response.
“I'm sorry, but this is not a good time to call,” she said. “I am sitting here looking at his work, and I can't stop crying. … Throughout all of those years Rich lived with chronic fatigue, but he used his persistence and willpower to create so many wonderful artworks that the public has never seen.”
The “Rich Mack Retrospective” highlights the artist’s lifetime of creativity. It is currently on exhibit until the end of June at the Cathedral Village senior living community’s Top of the Stairs Gallery in upper Roxborough.
Better late than never
In a way, Mack reminds me of Grandma Moses, who did not start painting until she was in her 70s, but within 10 years was one of the country's most famous artists. Mack, on the other hand, has been painting for 60 years, but at age 83 is having the first significant exhibit of his impressive work.
“I was so busy with my students for so many years,” Mack told the Local, “that I did not want to take time away from teaching to try to arrange a showing at a gallery and create all of the paintings for the show and promote it. That is extremely time-consuming. Now that I am retired, I finally got around to being able to do it.
He also has time to relax and bask in the acclaim. “I am so used to people not seeing my work that I must admit it is very nice to hear the comments I am getting,” he said. “Lots of people helped me to put up the 43 prints, drawings, and mostly paintings. There are lots of interesting, highly educated people living here at Cathedral Village — doctors, professors and other professionals — and they ask some very perceptive questions. They see more in the paintings than just the objects on the surface.”
Mack works in several mediums: drawing, printmaking, mixed-media sculpture, and painting. His work combines abstract and representational art. “I would like the viewer of my images to gain a clear experience of wonderment,” he said.
Perfect pairings
Mack grew up at Seventh and Indiana Streets in North Philadelphia, where his parents ran a grocery store, and later lived in Glenside with Greinke-Mack for 44 years, before moving to Cathedral Village in 2016. He graduated from the Philadelphia College of Art with honors in 1963, earned an M.F.A. with honors in the Fine Arts Department at the University of Pennsylvania, and was an art teacher at St. Peter's School, a private institution in Society Hill, for 36 years. He also taught art at Camden County Community College.
Greinke-Mack is also an artist, taught at the St. Peter's School for 38 years, paints commissioned portraits, and has seen her work exhibited in numerous Philadelphia galleries.
The couple has no children, “but we were with children every day at St. Peter's School,” Gerinke-Mack said. “We loved teaching the children, and they loved us.”
The Macks also love Cathedral Village’s campus. “It is full of beautiful nature, deer, fox, owls, trees,” Gerinke-Mack said. “And there are wonderful educational classes with former teachers. Lots of very nice people. I'm glad we are here.”
Though Mack is enjoying the feedback on his exhibition, it’s bittersweet. He said, “I am glad that I have sold some paintings, but I feel a loss also when someone buys a painting because I have been with these paintings for so many years, it is very hard to part with them. They are a part of me.”
The Rich Mack Retrospective is open to the public daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, email gerimackartist@aol.com. Len Lear can be reached at LenLear@chestnuthilllocal.com.
