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Travel Excursion - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Vibrant art museums draw global visitors
By Patrice Raplee
Pittsburgh, with its magnificent
skyscrapers, copious bridges and
dynamic industries is a city that
excels in progress and creativity.
This inventive dynamism, together
with fascinating history and diverse
neighborhoods, shaped a flourishing
art culture that continues to
burgeon and draw global visitors to
Pittsburgh’s spectacular museums.
The Society For Contemporary
Craft, located on Smallman Street,
features contemporary art in craft
media by international, national
and regional artists. Since 1971,
Contemporary Craft has focused
on multicultural diversity and nonmainstream
art with innovative
exhibitions to promote a socially
engaged art experience. The current
exhibition, Mindful, explores
mental health through art from
14 artists across the country. Although
mental health is often a
difficult subject, the artists’ work
in Mindful imbues a powerful
statement through multi-media
expressions to help breakdown
societal stigmas. These 33 incredible
art pieces evoke a resonance
and compassion to help viewers
explore the impact that mental
illness has on today’s society. In
addition to Society For Contemporary
Craft’s changing exhibitions,
the gallery also offers a wonderful
education center, small permanent
collection and retail store. Often,
artists with works in exhibitions
sell their work at gallery and it is
an excellent opportunity to purchase
unique pieces. Mindful runs
through March 12 2016 and Fiber
Art International runs May 6-August
21 2016; free admission. For
additional information, visit http://
contemporarycraft.org.
If you visit SFCC, it is located in
the Strip Historic Market District.
The neighborhood is fun to explore
with boutiques, specialty grocers,
ethnic shops, restaurants and
cafes. Stop by Bella Notte for delicious
Italian Hoagies.
Andy Warhol, a native of Pittsburgh,
had a profound and creative
impact on visual arts and his
art will continue to do so for generations
to come. His massive art
legacy is on display in the city’s
fantastic Andy Warhol Museum,
located on Sandusky Street. Upon
entrance to the museum, the
journey into Warhol’s pop culture
begins. A large video screen displays
his gravestone, located at
the Saint John Baptist Byzantine
Catholic Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
The video screen refreshes every
few hours and monitors tributes
to Warhol with fans leaving everything
from stacked Campbell
Soup cans to Coca-Cola bottles
and Champagne.
The seventh floor of the Warhol
Museum exhibits a linear exposé
of his life beginning with his birth
name of Andrew Warhola, born
in 1928. From here, visitors are
able to learn about his family history,
early life and see several
of his first drawings, oil paintings
and his commercial illustrator success.
Moreover, as you explore
the museum, you’ll discover Warhol’s
vibrant and fascinating films,
video collections and sculptures,
as well as his 1960’s pop art,
such as the Three Marilyn’s and
Mick Jagger captured in acrylic
and silkscreen ink on canvas.
The interactive museum engages
visitors in Warhol’s art with two cool
exhibits to explore, the three-minute
film test and Silver Clouds. The film
screen test enables visitors to create
a black and white, three-minute
screen test of themselves and then
have it sent to their email address
(portray your best pensive look).
The Silver Clouds room is a Floating
Sculpture of inflated silver rectangles
that float about the room,
aided by floor fans, while visitors
gently push the silver clouds into
new configurations. For additional
information, visit www.warhol.org.
Another visually stunning and
intriguing contemporary art museum
to visit is the Mattress Factory,
located on Sampsonia Way. Originally,
artists founded the museum
Clayton Parlor at The
Frick Art & Historical Society
(Photo courtesy of The Frick
Art & Hisorical Center)
in 1977 to support artists working
in residence for the creation of
site-specific installations. The Mattress
Factory presents the works
of established and emerging artists
each year with 30 to 40 exhibitions
remaining on display from two to
twelve months. One of the exhibitions,
Chiharu Shiota’s Trace Of
Memory, is visually haunting with
webs of yarn encasing household
objects throughout several rooms
of the museum’s ancillary building.
The installation is reminiscent
of an almost forgotten dream that
surfaces with feelings of loss.
Shiota’s exhibition runs to the end
of May 2016.
The museum’s permanent displays
are captivating and striking,
from Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Dots
Mirrored Room to celebrated American
artist James Turrell’s light installations.
However, the museum’s
A Trace of Memory - The Matresss Factory
(Photo by Patrice Raplee)
exhibitions can also be disarming
in their intensity, such as Greer
Lankton’s It’s All About ME, Not
You is autobiographical in nature
with her exhibit reflecting her life as
transgender and a drug-addict.
With brilliant, thought provoking
art located on four floors in
the main building, additional
exhibition sites and a satellite
gallery, the Mattress Factory is
an exciting museum to visit in
Pittsburgh. For additional information,
visit www.mattress.org.
For those interested in Pittsburgh’s
gilded age, The Frick Art
& Historical Center, located on
Reynolds Street, is situated on
five acres of gorgeous landscaped
lawns and gardens. Henry Clay
Frick, was Pittsburgh’s coke king
in the 1880s (bituminous coal) and
produced almost eighty percent
of the coke used by Pittsburgh’s
burgeoning iron and steel industries.
He was an avid art collector
for over 40-years. Frick’s daughter
Helen Clay Frick became a major
art collector as well and established
the Frick Art Museum to
display her collection 1970. In addition,
she willed her family home
Clayton and the surrounding estate
to be preserved and opened to the
public after her death. The Center,
with the restoration of Clayton, a
superb cafe, orientation center and
museum store opened in 1990.
The Frick Art & Historical Center
is one of the most fascinating art
and historical home museums in
the country. The Italian Renaissance-style
art museum houses a
fabulous permanent collection of
art by European masters from the
14th through the 18th centuries.
As visitors stroll through the museum’s
elegant oval rotunda and
intimate galleries, they’ll find decorative
arts, tapestries, Renaissance
and Baroque bronze statuettes,
Chinese porcelain and rare paintings.
Works by artists such as Rubens
and Giovanni di Paolo adorn
the Gallery of Italian Art. Exquisite
French art pieces (several that
were originally from the Palace of
Versailles) grace the collection as
well. Further, if you visit, make sure
to check the museum’s website, as
significant, special exhibitions are
on display three times a year with
past exhibits that include the magnificent
porcelain art, Forbidden
Fruit Chris Antemann At Meissen.
Clayton, the meticulously restored
Frick family home, is
equally amazing with its grand
collection of fine and decorative
art; it is one of the most beautiful
historic homes in the nation. The
interior is breath-taking and the
guided tour highlights the life of
the immensely wealthy Frick family
in the late 19th-century home.
Moreover, one of the rare aspects
of Clayton is that 93 percent of the
home’s decorative and fine art on
display was purchased by Henry
Clay Frick, such as the Monet
painting, Bords de la Sein a Lavacourt,
that hangs in the library.
With the fine art museum, historical
Clayton, the Green House and
Car and Carriage Museum, the
unique Frick Art & Historical Center
offers visitors an extraordinary
opportunity to view fine art and
experience the life and era of one
of America’s wealthiest families
and philanthropists. For additional
information and trip planning, visit
www.thefrickpittsburgh.org.
Of course, no Pittsburgh art museum
tour would be complete without
a visit to the Carnegie Museum
Of Art, considered one of the most
vital art foundations in the country.
Located on Forbes Avenue, the museum
features an outstanding collection
of international art, architectural
art and sculpture. A great place
Andy Warhol Museum (Photo by Patrice Raplee)
to begin your exploration is The
Hall Of Architect, a dynamic gallery
with its plaster cast collection of
architectural masterpieces from the
past. To walk through the remarkable
and enormous gallery by the
plaster casts, Roman cast columns
and sculptures affords a glimpse
of early Greece or Roman times.
After your visit, head up the wide,
grand staircase and venture into the
Scaife galleries to view the 19thcentury
Impressionists, such as Van
Gogh, Renoir and Monet. Or, visit
the Hall Of sculpture to gaze upon
the beauty of Greek, Egyptian and
Roman reproduction sculptures.
Whatever your preference of
art, the Carnegie Museum Of Art
is a fantastic museum for exploration
and contemplation. The
museum is quite large, so make
sure to plan enough time for
your visit. For additional information,
visit www.cmoa.org.
If You Go
Pittsburgh offers an excellent
range of accommodations, but
contemporary art enthusiasts and
travelers will love the marvelous
Hotel Monaco, located on William
Penn Place. This trendy and arty
hotel is a fusion of inspired design
with birdcage light fixtures, brightly
hued bathrooms tone-rich mirrors
and fresh wall art. The beds
are wonderfully comfy, the hotel
modern chic and the atmosphere
imbued with positive energy. In
addition, if you are a bit lonely,
ask the front desk for a goldfish
during your stay. They will bring
you your very own gold fish in a
bowl to keep you company. For
additional information, visit www.
monaco-pittsburgh.com.
Restaurants
With 90 neighborhoods to
choose from, Pittsburgh offers a
supreme array of fantastic restaurants
from classic to ethnic.
For a lunch or dinner with great
handcrafted beer, located in a former
church, visit the Church Brew
Works - www.churchbrew.com.
For inspired Asian-Fusion cuisine,
trek to the Lawrenceville neighborhood
and get a table at Pan - www.
panasianpgh.com. If you want a
stellar view of Pittsburgh at night
and desire grand and elegant ambience,
make a reservation at the
Grand Concourse. The restaurant
is located in the former but lovely
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad
Station with excellent cuisine and
service; focus fresh seafood and
American - www.grandconcourserestaurant.com.
Throughout Pittsburgh and its 90
neighborhoods, visitors will find every
genre of art in stunning galleries
and a wide variety of museums
that range from fine art to contemporary.
And, with city’s transportation
options, it is easy to get from
one museum or gallery to the next
or go on public walking art tours.
For additional information, visit
www.visitpittsburgh.com/plan-yourtrip/transportation/public-transportation.
For additional information
on Pittsburgh and the city’s museums,
visit www.visitpittsburgh.com.
Carnegie Museum of Art - Pittsburgh
(Photo by Patrice Raplee)
March 2016 Page 9