Brodhead, Quita

Quita Brodhead (1901 - 2002), born as Marie W Berl in Wilmington, DE attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later studied with such renowned artists as Henry McCarter, Arthur B. Carles, and Alexander Archipenko. In 1938 she began having solo shows in various galleries in New York and by the 1950s she was showing with Doris Staffel, Jane Piper, and Larry Day at Philadelphia’s Dubin Gallery. She, Piper, and Staffel also exhibited together in the 1950s with the Philadelphia Abstract Artists group. In the 1950s, Brodhead's work became more abstract. During this decade, she spent three years in France, one in Rome, and spent 1960-61 in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. In addition, she taught painting at Bryn Mawr College.

From 1938 and continuing for the rest of her life, Brodhead exhibited frequently in galleries and museums with solo and group shows in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Paris, and Rome, among places. Before her death, retrospective shows were held at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, PA, which she had founded in 1930; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Hollis Taggart Galleries in New York, celebrating her 100th birthday. Grace Glueck, art critic for the New York Times, said in reviewing the Taggart show, “The gifts of long life and the talent to live it rewardingly do not go to many. Ms. Brodhead is quite simply a phenomenon.” Brodhead’s paintings can be found in over twenty museums including the Philadelphia Museum, PAFA, State Museum of Pennsylvania, Delaware Art Museum, New Jersey State Museum, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Woodmere Art Museum, and the Museo de Bellas Artes.