VALERIO: Noël, which of your clients purchased
My mother never bought one of those paintings,
Gil’s work? You said the still lifes did well. You
however.
organized the male nudes without the expectation that they would sell well. HANLEY: The still lifes, that was definitely an easier
sell—design firms, private clients, that kind of thing. The male nudes, there was not a line at the door to buy them. That’s not to say people didn’t come and appreciate them. But frankly I knew that. My gallery was a little different from the Philadelphia art scene at that time, in that I represented a smaller group of artists, and I wasn’t representing what I felt
PATRICK TERENCHIN: At the exhibition openings,
who showed up? Was it a gay cultural event? HANLEY: Well, openings in my gallery were pretty
packed, and then there was always a mixed group of people. Gil had the most attractive models around, so all these gorgeous men would come in. It wasn’t overtly one way or the other. But there were more than the usual number of very attractive men at Gil’s openings, I will say that.
was commercial art. I would never put Gil’s work in
TERENCHIN: I’m just interested if the community
the category of commercial art. Be that as it may,
rallied around him in any way.
that meant I was counting on a big corporate sale every month to allow me to show the people I really
RULLO: I think no, because I remember one time
wanted to show, Gil being one of them. I think I met
when a gay organization asked him to donate a
him through Joe Amarotico, whom I also exhibited.
painting for an auction, which he sometimes did, he
Or it could have been you, Eric, because you used
was a little bothered. I remember him complaining
to come to my first gallery. As Eric said, portraiture
to me, “Why am I always asked to support the
is difficult anyway, unless you know the person, but
gay community? I’m trying to sell pictures and
when you add to that what people consider gay art,
gay people aren’t buying my pictures. The gay
that heightened the problem in terms of selling it.
community doesn’t support me!” Something else I just recalled, Gilbert would always say “pictures,”
My mother, in particular, never liked the fact that
not paintings—he explained to me that “I’m
my whole working life I’ve been working in the
PAINTING a PICTURE.” So I usually say “picture”
arts. So, needless to say, she never came into my
when I talk about his work.
gallery even though we had reviews all the time, and there was no way she could miss what I was
RYMSHAW: He wasn’t prominent in the gay
doing. I remember one Friday—and for those of
community.
you who may not know, Friday is ladies’ day at the orchestra—my mother and her friends got into town early, so I guess because they had nothing else to do she decided to bring them into my gallery, and it was during one of Gil’s shows. My mother was shocked. I have to tell you, her friends lingered so much that I was worried they were going to miss the curtain. I had a good chuckle with Gil over that
SCOTT: In 1990 Gilbert was in a five-person show
of figure paintings at Moore College of Art. Gilbert was by far the best one in the show. Many painters I knew thought he was a great painter, but even many of those artists didn’t really embrace his work because it seemed too gay. It was difficult enough to convince someone to buy a portrait of someone they didn’t know. Most art dealers back then GILBERT LEWIS: MANY FACES, MANY FIGURES
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