Robert (Bob) Rosenwald (1920-2006) was a person I was aware of peripherally. I knew he was an artist and sculpture from New Hope with some fame and recognition and that he was responsible for the kinetic sculpture near the bridge in the little plot of grass that was next to the Now and Then Shop (the sculpture still exists, the Now and Then Shop is sadly gone). My friend Kelly McDowell had an Estate Jewelry and Antiques shop on Coryell Street for many years and she knew him better than me. I’m not sure how they met but occasionally I would be coming in as he was going out and I’d step into the smokey cloud that wafted after him. He wanted nothing to do with me, it was the women he liked. “Who was that salty dog” I asked Kelly, “that was Bob Rosenwald the famous artist” she’d announce almost name dropping it onto me. I never thought about him again until Kelly started amassing a collection of his shad fest posters in the late 80’s and into the 90’s. Kelly always had an eye and nose for what art would be important and she was right on with this one. Not only did she love his work but he loved that she wanted it. Kelly’s plutonic friendship ended when Rosenwald just stopped showing up.
Kelly’s shop attracted a constant parade of eccentrics including our very own “log lady” Marietta Welch, who carried a smelly rag doll and sliver of wood into her shop for show-and-tell regularly, oh and let’s see….the very fit black man who showed up jewelry shopping in a thong, and not to forget visits from Warhol’s assistant, Rupert Smith in his imposing silver Rolls Royce, and of course there was me who would lay on her shop floor emotionally exhausted by my day eagerly waiting for the stories of her day.
The photos following are some of the amazing and clever Rosenwald posters that Kelly won at the scholarship auction for the years: 1987 (masthead silk screened by Foster Wright Cranor I think), 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1995.
No matter how big a name in the art world, local artists famous and not so famous have always been, and still are, willing to donate their work to support this scholarship fund event in full-on community spirit. Thank you Robert and to all of the artists who have donated over the past 25 or so years in what must be thousands of posters by now. —Kevin Griffin
Other Rosenwald Links: New Hope Artists, Faces and Places archives.
Shad Fest Posters 