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November 28, 2003–April 4, 2004
One of the most talented architects
of his generation, Chicago-based Douglas Garofalo (b.
1958) has created a career from experiments with new
materials, technology, and programs in addition to a
series of actual construction projects, ranging from
temporary interiors to residences and cultural facilities. APSS º Pittsburgh,
an installation by Garofalo Architects, is now featured
in the museum's Forum Gallery and extends into the adjacent
Scaife Foyer and outdoor Sculpture Court.
In the summer of 2003, Chicago's Museum
of Contemporary Art commissioned Garofalo Architects
to design an experimental architectural structure,
which would "bridge" the museum building
and the surrounding public space. Garofalo Architects
designed and constructed a temporary installation on
the stepped plaza in front of museum that provided
pedestrians with an outdoor public lounge.
In Pittsburgh, Garofalo reconfigures
the structure for Carnegie Museum of Art. Termed
Animated Public Spatial System (APSS) by the architects,
the installation is assembled with concrete and freeform
wooden benches, steel beams, and hundreds of yards
of yellow fabric awnings. The work makes a temporary
insertion that weaves its way, colorfully, through
the ground floor spaces of the museum. Presented
alongside these artifacts is a video project titled Storm
Hangar, a collaboration between Douglas Garofalo
and Chicago-based artist and 1999 MacArthur Foundation
Fellow Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle. The firm advocates
interactive architecture that is at home in our contemporary
world. Accordingly, the public is encouraged to use
APSS to relax and view both the museum spaces
and the video presentation.
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November 8, 2003–February 15,
2004
The Heinz Architectural Center
This examination of contemporary design culture
(from 1998 to 2002) brings together more than 40 innovative projects
from around the world, spanning the fields of architectural, product,
furniture, and graphic design. The exhibition explores four fundamental
ideas that question conventional assumptions about the design of
objects and spaces: designs that reference and radically transform
commonplace objects and environments; multifunctional objects that
change both shape and use, thereby blurring the traditionally fixed
relationship between "form and function"; portable structures
that respond to nomadic conditions of lightness and ephemerality;
and controversial objects that force us to reconsider our relationship
to products that dictate new rituals of use and expectations of
performance. The exhibition is organized by the Walker Art Center
and will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue.
Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life is
organized by Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and is made possible
by generous support from Target Stores, the Mondriaan Foundation,
with support from the Netherlands Culture Fund of the Dutch Ministries
for Foreign Affairs and Education, Culture, and Science, and in-kind
assistance provided by Kirin Brewery Company, Ltd. The presentation
at Carnegie Museum of Art is supported by the Fellows Fund.
The programs of the Heinz
Architectural Center are made possible by the generous support
of the Drue Heinz Trust. General support for museum programs
is provided by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and The Heinz
Endowments.
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November 7, 2003–January 11, 2004
This exhibition celebrates the fifty years of
the decorative arts department at Carnegie Museum of Art (established
1953) and the foundations, collectors, and donors whose generosity
has helped shape the department. For example, the department was
founded with a $75,000 grant from the Sarah Scaife Foundation for
acquisitions. Other donors to the department, many of whom were
also very active voices in how the department developed, include
the Hearst Foundation, Richard King Mellon Foundation, Ailsa Mellon
Bruce, Herbert DuPuy, Mary Murtland Wurts, Mrs. John Berdan, and
Tillie Speyer. Their generous gifts and bequests now comprise the
core of the museum's decorative arts collection. The acquisition
strategies of each of the four curators who have been in charge
of the department since it was founded in 1953, Herbert Weissberger
(1953-61), David Owsley (1968-78), Philip Johnston (1982-92), and
Sarah Nichols (1992-present), are examined through the objects
that they acquired. However, the exhibition is more than just a
nostalgic look at the past. The exhibition "runways" some
of the current trends in collecting decorative arts to promote
interest in and dialogue about the exciting ways objects can be
displayed and interpreted. The exhibition also points the way towards
the next fifty years of the department and the future of decorative
arts within the broader context of the museum of art as a whole.
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October 4, 2003
Sarah Scaife Galleries
The Sarah Scaife Galleries, home for many
of the paintings, sculptures, and decorative art objects in the
museum's collection, will reopen after a 17-month renovation.
Improvements include the replacement of skylights, addition of
new climate control systems, and an infrastructure to support
wireless technology. Though the galleries have not undergone
major architectural reconfiguration, they will show some changes.
There will be a larger Works on Paper gallery located at the
entrance to the galleries. The contemporary art section will
incorporate decorative arts and works on paper along with paintings,
sculpture, and film and video pieces. The floor-to-ceiling salon-style
installation of Panopticon has inspired similar arrangements
of artwork in some of the new Scaife galleries. Resource areas
and comfortable seating will also be integrated into the space.
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October 4, 2003–February
8, 2004
Scaife Works on Paper Gallery
The American Impressionist painter Childe
Hassam enjoyed a long and close relationship with Carnegie Museum
of Art during his lifetime. In 1907, the museum purchased 30
drawings directly from the artist. These drawings, ranging in
date from Hassam's first trip to Europe in 1883 until just after
the turn of the century, offer an intimate record of the artist's
creative process. Beginning in 1915, Hassam began making etchings
and lithographs of New York and the New England countryside that
are among the most eloquent expressions of impressionist printmaking
made by an American artist. Shortly after Hassam's death, his
widow donated some 60 of his lithographs and etchings to the
museum. Selections from both collections will be on view.
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