Member Profile: Artist George Lipchak and The Warhol 

Sculptor George Lipchak and his daughter Elana have enjoyed The Andy Warhol Museum ever since it opened five years ago. A Carnegie Museums Family Member and a single parent, he spends half a year in Pittsburgh where his ten-year old daughter lives. He says Elana and friends find The Warhol "a fun place, where the things they see in the supermarket are also art. They like the Mylar balloons, the cow wallpaper, and the large sofas. They like the time capsules." 

Lipchak is fascinated by Warhol's early innovative work, like the disaster paintings, the electric chair, and the giant Mao portraits. "When Warhol made them, nothing like that was going on in the art world," he says.   "The disaster paintings have a sinister edge, and the Mao portraits make cross-cultural references that are part of the art world today."  

Lipchak uses all the benefits of family membership. His daughter does art activities at The Warhol, and he likes his free admission to every major exhibit. He can tell you about the Dali show, the Basquiat show, and the In Your Face show with its police identikits (which he and Elana experimented with).  He believes The Warhol puts Pittsburgh on the map as a place to visit. When guests from New York visit him, he takes them to The Warhol and the other Carnegie Museums, and to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. 

A sculptor who uses welded steel and pigmented plaster to create non-representational forms, Lipchak exhibits his work in Europe. Whether he is in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, or Austria, he says that when people learn he from Pittsburgh they ask him about The Warhol--about its permanent collections and special exhibits. 

Lipchak stays close to his Pittsburgh roots. Born on the North Side, he went to North Catholic High School, and later to Carnegie Mellon for graduate work in sculpture. He moved to New York, and then went on to live and work as an artist in Roda de Bara, close to Barcelona. He's a sculptor with a Spanish address, but The Andy Warhol Museum and Family Membership in Carnegie Museums is very important to his life in Pittsburgh.