Libby Newman, prolific artist, curator, and arts activist, has died at 100

Libby Newman, 100, of Philadelphia, celebrated artist, popular curator, energetic arts activist, and mentor, died Tuesday, Aug. 8, of frailty syndrome at her home.

A prolific creator of more than 1,000 pieces in textiles, paints, woodcuts, and other material, Ms. Newman’s work resides permanently in more than 30 museums and libraries around the world. Her art can be seen in galleries, schools, theaters, businesses, public places, and homes around the United States and across Europe, South America, China, Africa, Japan, and the Middle East.

She showed locally at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, University City Science Center, Brandywine Workshop and Archives, and many other venues. She had lived since 1991 in the very shadow of the Art Museum.

Ms. Newman championed the infusion of art into all facets of society and told The Inquirer in 2001: “If you could make people more inquisitive and enrich their lives, then I feel as if you did a noble thing.”

Much of her abstract work focuses on interpretations of environment, nature, tranquility, and imagination. She was influenced by the rural Delaware countryside of her youth and said in a 2001 artist’s statement: “I learned early in my life to reach inward and to reflect on the beauty of nature around me. In this sense my work is autobiographical, expressing references to my past and present environments.”

She was inspired by the ocean, trees, and rain. She watched lightning flash and leaves fall, and recreated those experiences in her work.

She used explosive color early in her career and became more subtle as she aged. She held her last show when she was 94.

“Hers is a universe of showery light and color,” Inquirer art critic Victoria Donohoe said in 1988. “Her vaporous, lyrical, abstract works are fresh and free, with a curious, instinctive sense of composition and color.”

Ms. Newman was founding director and curator at the University City Science Center’s innovative Esther Klein Gallery from 1976 until her retirement in 2001. She designed the gallery to explore the relationship between art and science, and more than 9,000 students passed through her educational arts programs.

She mentored countless diverse young artists and, as a national leader of the Artists Equity Association, testified before Congress in the 1970s about the rights of artists regarding taxation on sales and other issues. She served as a visual arts panelist for the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts in the 1970s and was cocurator of the outdoor sculpture exhibitions at the governor’s mansion during Gov. Dick Thornburgh’s eight-year term in the 1980s.

“Art requires a great deal of concentration, tranquility, and love.”

She earned citations for achievement from Mayors John F. Street and Ed Rendell, and was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania in 1992. She received the Percy Owens Award from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1995, and the Stella Drabkin Memorial Award from the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

She gained an internship in the 1980s at Brandywine Workshop and Archives and later established the Libby Newman Fellowship for aspiring artists. “I believe in giving back to the art community that has always been so generous to me,” she said on the BWA website.

She even judged Mummer’s parades in the 1980s. “She was everybody’s best friend,” said her daughter, Andrea Newman Orsher. “She was always asking questions. She was caring and loving. She had a good soul.”

Lillian Goldberg was born Nov. 17, 1922. She grew up during tough times in rural Rockland, Del., hard by the Brandywine River, and never forgot the struggles she overcame as a girl. She danced and studied piano, and became certified in dental hygiene at the University of Pennsylvania after high school.

Later, she focused full time on her art and earned a bachelor’s degree in printmaking from the Philadelphia College of Art, now University of the Arts, in 1980. She married dentist Samuel Newman in 1945, had son Don and daughter Andrea, and set up a studio in Merion. Her husband died in 1985.

She married Herman Feldman in 1986, and their families became as one. She was a mother to his three sons and later a grandmother to his seven grandchildren.

Her second husband died in 2015. “She was the most caring individual I know,” said her son-in-law Rob Orsher.

Ms. Newman went often to the symphony and opera, and enjoyed weekends down the Shore in Longport. She designed and created many of her own clothes when she was young and later joined book clubs and wine clubs.

“She explored many avenues of art and changed styles every few years,” said her son Don. “She taught me so much and made things fun.”

In a short 1995 autobiography, Ms. Newman said: “All in all, I have had an unusual life, full and rewarding with an incredible family and many caring and loving friends. I am very grateful for everything, even the toilets and running water.”

In addition to her children, Ms. Newman is survived by a grandson, two great-grandchildren, a sister, and other relatives. A granddaughter and sister died earlier.

Services were held Friday, Aug. 11.

Donations in her name may be made to the Libby Newman Legacy Residency Award Fund, Philadelphia Foundation, P.O. Box 826728, Philadelphia, Pa. 19182.