Tahitian #2

Piper sets a luminous still life in the foreground: a jug of cosmos alongside pears, grapes, and lemons arranged on a white tabletop. Beyond the table appears a quotation from Paul Gauguin—or rather Piper’s own reinvention of his work—featuring two Tahitian figures in a dreamlike tropical setting. With this juxtaposition, Piper reveals her modernist lineage while probing the relationship between color, mood, and the porous boundary between fantasy and reality.

Piper studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), the Barnes Foundation, and privately with Arthur B. Carles. She first exhibited at Woodmere in 1968, when ten of her works were included in An Invited Group Exhibition by Painters and Sculptors. She also served as a juror for Woodmere’s 39th Annual Juried Exhibition in 1979. Over the course of her long career, she exhibited widely at institutions including Woodmere, PAFA, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Allentown Art Museum, Lehigh University, and Swarthmore College. She held teaching appointments at the University of the Arts, the New York Studio School, and PAFA, where she became a significant mentor to Bill Scott, whose work is on view nearby.

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