Exhibition Archives Summer 2004

Lebbeus Woods: Experimental Architecture
July 31, 2004–January 16, 2005
Heinz Architectural Center

Widely considered one of the most innovative experimental architects working today, Lebbeus Woods (American, b. 1940) combines an extraordinary mastery of drawing with a penetrating analysis of architectural and urban form and social and political conditions that is nourished by his wide knowledge of fields ranging from philosophy to cybernetics. Like many architects engaged in speculation, he has produced no permanent bricks-and-mortar edifices. For Woods, however, the act of articulating ideas graphically or through the medium of the model—of releasing those ideas from the realm of the mind into the real world—is as constitutive of building as is the act of physical construction. Woods is similarly unbound by conventional principles governing architectural form, function, and space, arguing that world conditions and rapidly changing contemporary life demand the invention of wholly new approaches to architectural space. Through hundreds of architectural projects and installations, solo and group exhibitions, publications, and seminars, workshops, and teaching positions, Woods has passionately and imaginatively advocated forms that defy tectonic expectation and spaces whose uses are indeterminate. This exhibition, which will be the largest ever on Woods in the United States, will include in-depth representation of a selected group of projects shown through drawings, models, and human-scaled photographic blow-ups to create an engulfing spatial experience. Designed by Woods, the exhibition will also feature a site-specific installation that he describes as a drawing in space. Lebbeus Woods: Experimental Architecture is organized by the Heinz Architectural Center and will be accompanied by a catalogue.

Generous support for this exhibition has been provided by the Ann and William Boyd, Jr. Fund for Architecture and Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown. Special support for the exhibition catalogue, Lebbeus Woods: Experimental Architecture, has been provided by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago.

The programs of the Heinz Architectural Center are made possible by the generosity 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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Early German Prints from the Collection
June 12–October 31, 2004
Scaife Works on Paper Gallery

The art of printmaking developed in northern Europe in the middle of the 15th century. The relief process of woodcut evolved from the printing of designs on textiles, while engraving and etching evolved out of metalworking. By the mid-14th century, papermaking techniques, invented in China in the early second century, had been introduced to Germany; and as paper became generally available, the practice of printing woodcuts, engravings, and etchings moved from the artisan's workshop to the artist's studio.

The first prints were simple woodcuts produced as devotional images for pilgrims. In the second half of the 15th century, with the invention of movable type, the woodcut became intimately tied to book illustration. At the same time, engraving and etching developed into independent art forms. Though we are not certain who collected such ephemeral objects, we know that in addition to their religious function, early prints also served as entertainment for the leisured and wealthy members of an increasingly literate society, and as a way to transmit artistic ideas.

The earliest German prints were created by anonymous artists in very small editions, only a few precious examples have survived. By the 1470s, painters like Martin Schongauer began to make prints, translating the range of tone in their drawings and paintings into black and white and creating increasingly complex designs. In the succeeding generation, Albrecht Dürer would develop the print into a supremely beautiful work of art — an object worth collecting solely for its artistic merit.

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Defiance Despair Desire: German Expressionist Prints from the Marcia and Granvil Specks Collection
June 12–August 8, 2004
Heinz Galleries

The period covered by this exhibition was one of the most turbulent and dramatic in history. The earliest work dates from 1893, roughly two decades after the unification of Germany under Prussia, and the latest was made in 1938, five years after the end of the Weimar Republic and Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Those forty-five years saw unprecedented military and economic devastation, accompanied by drastic social, political, and cultural change.

For much of that time, the dominant avant-garde style in Germany — in the visual, literary, and performing arts — was Expressionism, a term first used around 1911 in opposition to Impressionism. Gradually, Expressionism came to signify any art primarily concerned with rendering the vital emotions and desires at the core of human experience. Defying conventional attitudes toward art and life, the Expressionists believed they could initiate social and spiritual renewal.

In pursuit of this revolutionary, utopian goal, the 32 artists featured in this exhibition employed many styles and techniques. Käthe Kollwitz imbued monumental figures with haunting emotions. The members of Brücke unleashed bold lines and stark contrasts in their exhilarating landscapes, nude studies, and portraits. George Grosz, avoiding gestural flourish, produced biting, precise political caricature.

Assembled during the last thirty years by Marcia and Granvil Specks of Evanston, Illinois, this collection of German Expressionist prints is particularly notable for its breadth, depth, and quality. With the Specks' gift of more than 300 prints in 2000, the Milwaukee Art Museum became one of the most important centers for the study of German Expressionism in North America. Here, over 200 powerful images from a chaotic era communicate with undiminished force and immediacy.

Defiance Despair Desire: German Expressionist Prints from the Marcia and Granvil Specks Collection is organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum. Generous support for the exhibition's presentation in Pittsburgh has been made possible by The Scudder Charitable Foundation and Janet and Bill Hunt.

General support for the museum's exhibition program is provided by The Heinz Endowments and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

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