Exhibition Archives Fall 2006

Henri Matisse : The Thousand and One Nights
September 12–October 22, 2006
Works on Paper Gallery

Henri Matisse created the colorful and joyous The Thousand and One Nights, with its fanciful magic lamps, dancing plant forms, and hearts at the age of 81, when he was too ill to paint comfortably at an easel. Working in bed, Matisse cut out shapes from pre-painted paper with scissors. He then directed his assistants to arrange the cutouts according to his instructions.

This design was inspired by the story of Scheherazade, the heroine of The Arabian Nights. In the story, the Persian king, having been betrayed by his wife, became so distraught he married a maiden each day and had her beheaded the next morning. Scheherazade married the king, but saved herself from death by distracting him with enthralling stories every night, reserving the ending for the following evening, when she would begin a new tale.

The composition, with its colorful shapes and patterns, evokes the magical quality of the heroine's storytelling and also the passage of time through the night. The complex shapes are skillfully interwoven to create a spontaneous, musical rhythm that captures the fascinating rapture of the story that inspired it. This large paper cutout is a visitor favorite, but due to its fragile nature, the work is only on view for a limited period of time each year.

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Connections: The West End Pedestrian Bridge Competition
September 22–December 10, 2006
The Heinz Architectural Center

The West End Bridge is a major historic element in the Pittsburgh cityscape, a key bridge in a city famed for its bridges. Linking the city's Northside and West End neighborhoods, the bridge offers splendid views east to Point State Park and downtown Pittsburgh and west across Brunot's Island and the Ohio River. However, it is difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to access and traverse the bridge in current circumstances. As part of the ongoing development of the rivers and riverbanks in Pittsburgh, the Riverlife Task Force organized a two-phase competition to improve pedestrian use of the bridge.

More than 100 architects, engineers, landscape architects, urban designers, artists, and students from around the world participated in the opening phase of the competition. They were charged with envisioning creative approaches to connect pedestrians, cyclists, boaters, and other users of all ages to both shores of the river. The six design teams selected to continue in the competition were asked to develop their proposals to strike a balance between visionary ideas and practical design while respecting the historical significance and structural grace of the existing bridge.

The exhibition presents the winning proposal-submitted by Endres Ware, Architects and Engineers of Berkeley, California, collaborating with the landscape architects Olin Partnership of Philadelphia-together with the other five final stage proposals and five projects commended in the competition's first stage.

The end of the competition launches a process that Riverlife hopes will build on public and private partnerships to complete "the Loop" and make Three Rivers Park a focal point in the life of the city while highlighting Pittsburgh's existing resources and elevating access to our waterfronts.

Competition Winners:
1st Prize: Endres Ware, Berkeley, CA
2nd Prize: La Dallman Architects, Milwaukee, WI
3rd Prize: West 8, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Final Round Competitors:
Bridgescape, Columbia, MD
Index Space Architecture, Miami, FL
Llonch + Vidalle Architecture, New York, NY and Buenos Aires, Argentina

Honorable Mentions from First Round:
4240 Architecture, Chicago, IL
Architecture Denver, Denver, CO
Claus Gade and Peter Leuchsenring, Hellerup, Denmark
David Roth, Pittsburgh, PA
Hiroyuki Futai, Nakano Tokyo, Japan

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Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages
October 14–January 15, 2007
Heinz Galleries

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages presents 120 exquisite art objects by one of the most important decorative artists of the early 20th century, Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). Son of Charles Tiffany, founder of the renowned Fifth Avenue jewelry store, the younger Tiffany is best known for his artistry in the glass medium as well as for the lavish interiors he designed for the houses of some of the wealthiest American industrialists of the period. The exhibition reveals the extraordinary range of Tiffany's accomplishments and includes his signature art glass windows, lamps, mosaics, metalwork, pottery, furniture, screens, paintings, jewelry, and objects d'art.

Tiffany's art and his life were filled with drama, color, and complexity. Born into a family of great wealth, given all the advantages of the privileged in education and travel, Tiffany was a perfectionist with a highly developed aesthetic sensibility and a willingness to push materials to his expressive ends. He directed a studio of highly accomplished artists who found seemingly endless and inventive ways to express Tiffany's aesthetic goals. From the 1880s to the 1920s, Tiffany's various companies earned him a revered status in the United States and in Europe. His signature style bridged and transcended the European avant-garde movements of the late 19th century. Taking the Aesthetic Movement's pursuit of pure beauty, the Arts and Crafts reverence for the handmade object, and Art Nouveau's celebration of forms derived from nature, Tiffany created something uniquely American and wholly his own.

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages was organized by Marilynn A. Johnson and Exhibitions International, NY. The exhibition is made possible with generous support from the Tiffany & Co. Foundation.

The Pittsburgh presentation is supported by The Fellows of Carnegie Museum of Art and the Henry L. Hillman Fund. Additional support has been provided by PNC Wealth Management, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, The Mary Hillman Jennings Foundation, the Laurel Foundation, and the Alexander C. and Tillie S. Speyer Foundation.

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

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Distinctive Desk Sets: Useful Ornament from Tiffany Studios
October 14–June 17, 2007
Treasure Room

Tiffany Studios, directed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, produced bronze desk sets in a variety of designs and finishes. This exhibition presents nine desk sets that demonstrate the surprising number of objects that appeared on the well-appointed desks of the socially prominent in the early 20th century.

General support for the exhibition program at Carnegie Museum of Art is provided by grants from the Heinz Endowments and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

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96th Annual Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Exhibition
October 27–January 15, 2007
Heinz Galleries C&D

Some of the best work of Pittsburgh regional artists will be on display when the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP) hosts its 96th annual exhibition in the museum’s Heinz Galleries. The event is the longest running annually occurring exhibition of its kind in the United States. Each year since 1910, the organization has invited its 500 member artists, who all live within 150 miles of the city, to submit work for the show. Douglas Fogle, Carnegie Museum of Art curator of contemporary art, juried the 2006 exhibition.

Fogle selected 87 works by 73 artists for presentation in the exhibition. “The works I chose represent a wide cross-section of media and employ equally divergent methods of engaging the audience,” Fogle says. On view are paintings, watercolors, sculptures, ceramics, photographs, videos, and works in mixed media and fiber.

“It is important for a city to foster a sense of community encouragement at the level of the individual artist,” Fogle says. “This has been the mission of AAP from its inception, and its annual exhibition has provided a forum for its members to express their creativity in a public setting.” 

AAP has included among its members such well-known artists as Mary Cassatt, Andy Warhol, John Kane, Philip Pearlstein and Malcolm Parcell, among many others.

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Rembrandt's Great Subjects: Prints from the Collection
November 4–February 11, 2007
Scaife Works on Paper Gallery

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt's birth, and Carnegie Museum of Art is celebrating with an exhibition of etchings from its large and superlative collection of prints by the 17th-century master. Rembrandt's Great Subjects will present 60 etchings that amply demonstrate the artist's renowned skill as a printmaker and the evolution of his style over three important decades, beginning with the 1630s.

On view will be works that represent the full range of Rembrandt's great motifs: self-portraits, portraits, beggars, genre scenes, landscapes, myths, and religious subjects. The exhibition also will explore the artist's role in helping to shape or change perceptions of the different artistic genres. The museum's extensive collection will allow viewers to compare prints from several stages in the artist's career to fully appreciate the stylistic variation and technical development of Rembrandt's incomparable skills. The exhibition will include some of his most celebrated prints: Self-Portrait Leaning on a Stone Sill, (1639); The Three Trees (1643); Christ Preaching (The Hundred Guilder Print) (c. 1649), and Christ Crucified Between Two Thieves (The Three Crosses), 4th state (c. 1660).

Generous support for the exhibition has been provided by Mellon Financial Corporation.

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

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Forum 58: Jonathan Borofsky Human Structures
December2, 2006–March 11, 2007
Forum Gallery

For more than 30 years, Jonathan Borofsky has been exploring archetypal figures through a variety of media—drawing, painting, installations, video, and large-scale public sculpture—to convey simple yet profound notions of human experience. On view in the Forum Gallery, Human Structures comprises hundreds of brightly colored, interlocking, acrylic male and female figures. This large-scale, site-specific work encourages viewers to walk around and through the installation.

General support for the exhibition program at Carnegie Museum of Art is provided by grants from the Heinz Endowments and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

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