June 5, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local art legend, 97, now exhibiting at Hill Gallery
by PAMELA ROGOW

John Lear (far right) is seen here at Woodmere Art Museum in January of 1989 just before the opening of an exhibit as part of the centennial celebration of the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Others are (from left) committee member Anita Brooke and her mother, Sallie, committee chair; Dr. Michael Schantz, director of Woodmere; the Rev. Scott O’Brien, then-rector at St. Martin’s (now deceased), and committee member Whim Lynch.

In John Lear’s case, it was surely beauty before age. Now almost 98 (born June 19, 1910), Lear looked back on a life in art in our recent interview and explained that he — and his art teacher at the Chestnut Hill Academy — knew he was destined to be a professional artist even from his high school days.

The art teacher went on to be head of Cooper Union. John went on to a life of painting, drawing, sculpting and teaching about art. He is one of four artists featured in the “Philadelphia Water Colorists” exhibition at the Chestnut Hill Gallery, 8117 Germantown Ave., which opened May 27 and runs through June 21. Jim McFarlane, Susannah Hart Thomer and Bill Roberts are also featured in the show.

Raised on Springfield Avenue in Chestnut Hill, Lear always called Philadelphia his home despite the profound influence of several trips to Europe as a young man. Four of his works are in the permanent collection at Woodmere Art Museum, where he has exhibited frequently in annual exhibitions since the museum’s founding. Woodmere also presented his works in several group shows (1941 and 2001) and in three one-man shows (1955, 1978 and 1992).

The museum’s Curator of Collections, W. Douglass Paschall, attests: “John Lear is one of the ‘Grand Old Men’ of Philadelphia art, a figure whose years have not dimmed him in the least but who has maintained an equilibrium and a consistent high regard across the sequence of ‘periods’ and ‘isms’ that confine most artists.

“Lear, trained in the academic tradition, burst upon the scene at an early age in the 1930s as one of a handful who embraced the mysteries of Surrealism. As more lyrical subjects followed — with the societal angst of the Great Depression and the war in the rear-view mirror — he found himself in the 1950s securely at the center not of the overheated mainstream over which the critics dueled but of a quietly eddying current that weathered all storms.

“The return to figuration that came with the 1970s brought new audiences to recognize the value that other veterans of the art scene always knew was there in his works. Now, in the first decade of a new century, Lear is nothing less than a diamond, exquisitely faceted, gleaming and of an enduring worth that all can sense.”

Lear’s watercolors are mostly landscapes, figure work and still lifes. An earlier self-portrait in oil, that leaned against a wall in his apartment, in a style gently reminiscent of Soviet realism, impressed me greatly, but it won’t be exhibited in this show.

From high school at Chestnut Hill Academy — in years when it was primarily a boarding school — John was excused from Latin so that he could spend his time drawing, to current days at the Springfield Residence’s independent assisted living facility on Evergreen Avenue, Lear never questioned his destiny as an artist. Neither did his parents. “My family encouraged me. A local portrait painter told my parents that I shouldn’t go to college but to an art school, which I did.”

Watercolor is Lear’s principal medium. “I also use acrylic and oil, and sometimes mixed media,” he explained. “I don’t work every day, and don’t always stick to the same media — if arthritis or cataracts affect my ability to work that day.” Still, he produces about six or seven works a month.

“I jokingly say about getting old that being a nonagenarian isn’t any day at the beach, but it’s not that bad. I think back on my parents’ lives, and there is nobody on either side except one uncle that have come anywhere near my age. I feel fortunate that I still have all my buttons. I have so many friends in the arts.”

Lear has a pleasant one-bedroom apartment in this facility. His easel is situated near the window that frames a beautiful oak tree. He depends on a walker and on personnel from the assisted living facility to help him to the common dining room. (“Sometimes they are late, and sometimes I only get there when everyone is eating dessert,” he said.)

“I’m very happy to have done exactly what I like to do best,” Lear said. That must indeed be a prescription for a happy and long life.

The exhibition, Philadelphia Water Colorists, is now running through June 21 at Chestnut Hill Gallery, 8117 Germantown Ave. For more information, call 215-248-2549.