This web site (and blog) celebrates the life and work of Shirley Moskowitz, an American artist who was born in Houston, Texas on August 4, 1920 and died in Santa Monica, California, on April 28, 2007.
As the site continues to expand and develop, it will feature biographical information, material about her 75-year career as an artist, photographs of her work, and contacts regarding exhibitions, collections and sales.
We encourage visitors to leave comments about Shirley and her work, in response to a post or on any of the pages of this site.
Shirley Moskowitz 1920-2007 
Dear Ruth, Frank, Sam,
This is Michael Lavine, a friend of Frank’s from Plymouth Meeting. I’m writing to say that I have a Shirley Moskowitz collage of Coney Island. I live in North Carolina and have the collage here but will soon be delivering it to my son Isaac, who lives in Devon, PA.
My dad married Helen Schevill after my mom dies. Helen was an accomplished pianist and art collector. She know Calder and Shirley Moskowitz, and and work of each in our home in Elkins Park. I remember meeting Shirley. When my dad passed away Helen gifted me Shirley’s painting called The Archeologists, signed and dated 1958.
I love this work. It hangs proudly in our home in Northern Virginia. I will be happy to send pictures if you wish.
– David Starobin
Ruth & Frank,
Your mother made a watercolor portrait of me as a gift for my Bar Mitzvah in 1965. Coincidently I just had my hands on it yesterday as we are getting ready to downsize and move. My wife commented on what a nice watercolor it is.
Don’t know if you remember me but we lived across the street in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
Fond memories of my childhood with you on Wayland road so many years ago.
Marc Sable
Marc! I remember you well! Am sending this along to Frank on email as not sure he sees the comments on this web site.
Ruth, thanks for the reply. I do remember you, but only vaguely as Frank’s older sister so many years ago on Wayland Road in Plymouth Meeting. You may have had contact with my older brother Gary who was 3 years older.
You brother and I were really good friends when we so young before you moved to Philadelphia. I have many memories of playing in your house. I think Frank must have been 12 or 13 when you moved. I was devastated at the time. Tried to keep in touch but you know how that goes, especially without email/Facetime/Text at the time.
In any event it was fun to hear from you and I will continue to cherish your mothers watercolor/gift to me so many years ago.
Marc Sable
Marc — I just dug out the emails we exchanged back in 2011. My email address since then has changed. I’ll drop you a line (assuming your email address is the same). So good to hear from you again.
I bought a watercolor from Shirley in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. It shows a tarpaper shack in the midst of a colorful landscape. Shirley and Jacob Gruber were friends of Maurice English and me. We used to meet for dinner and conversations about art, anthropology, and publishing. It all seems so long ago and far away. . . .
I believe I have an original S. Moskowitz, landscape, oil on wood painting with linen matte. It has several numbers on a label on the back: 7802, 27056, size 4×9, and 17-7-70.
Bought at a thrift store several years ago. Didn’t research until today.
Would be happy to send pics for authentication.
Thank you. Tina
Wonderful you’re doing this for your mother. This helps keep her alive out here in the wider world beyond your own hearts. Thanks for sharing your Mom’s talents with us.
What a wonderful tribute to your Mother. She was extremely talented in many mediums.
Are you still interested in cataloging her body of work?
I believe I might have one of your Mom’s paintings. S. GRUBER is printed in the left hand bottom corner. It is an oil landscape with a stream and trees on each side of stream and some hills in the background. It is framed in a gold frame with red velvet around the painting.
There is no other information on the back of the painting to provide further information.
Please let me know if and where you wish me to send a picture of the painting.
It’s wonderful of you to have this website for your mother’s artwork and life story! In 1960 at the Har Zion Synagogue in Philadelphia, my husband bought an ink drawing collage called “Chanukah” which is a wonderful depiction of a mother and son lighting a menorah. It has recently been reframed and will be hanging at our son’s home in Sacramento, CA very soon. Your talented mother’s legacy lives on.
Time for an estate sale – but holding back on a piece of art titled “Beercan Man” etching – hand colored on the plate. Shirley Moskowitz 2211 Delancey Pl, Phila PA 19103. Is there more than one Shirley Moskowitz?
Judy B.
Just the one as far as I know — Beer Can Man is one of her pieces (I also have one of the versions of it — each version is unique)
— Ruth
I have one of Shirley’s paintings – view of Matera in Italy.
I live in London but it was bought many years ago in Rome by
my mother in law.
I am delighted to learn more about your mother. I purchased a piece of her art approximately 7 years ago in St. Louis out of appreciation for her art, not because I recognized her work. I am transporting the piece to my new residence and for grins checked the Internet for information about her. I would be happy to send you an image of the piece. The back has her name and “Houston” on it. Thank you sharing the information.
I purchased a piece of your mother’s work back in 1983 in Philadelphia. The title is The view from Florita’s window. Sorry to read of her passing. I love the website deticated to her. Fred M
To Whom it May Concern,
I work in the Special Collections of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. We are currently building a database of our objects that will be accessible to the public online in the future, and I am writing to you in hopes of obtaining an email address or a street address to which I might send a letter requesting permission to display digital images of Shirley Moskowitz’s artwork.
I will gladly provide more information about the project, as well as specific details about the work in question, in the letter.
Best regards,
Nicole Colosimo, Graduate Assistant
Bryn Mawr College, ncolosimo@brynmawr.edu
We just saw Ruth’s article on her mother, and family, in the Jewish Exponent here in Philadelphia. The exhibit and visit in Nocara sound just fabulous. We have been out of touch for a long time, too long. Where are you all, especially Jake? Warm regards for the new year.
Howard
Read the request for info in the Houston Jewish Herald Voice. I have a lovely woodcut entitled Succos by Shirley Moskowitz. For many years It hung in the living room of my mother Ethel Slipakoff’s home………..when she died in 1998 I became the owner!
Hey there, I may have found a piece of artwork painted by Shirley Gruber. Please email me and I can send you a picture!
Dear Ruth Ellen, Frank, and Sam,
How lovely and appropriate that a conference will be held at a site that your Mom depicted so beautifully in her art. I look at her photo, and her art, and remember all the wonderful times we spent with her and Jake in NYC, Santa Monica, and Italy. Equally wonderful is your keeping Shirley’s beautiful art and our memories of her alive. Her memory is truly for a blessing. My only wish is that I could attend the conference, but that is not possible.
Best, always
Marilyn