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Patti Smith At The
Warhol
Strange Messenger: The Art of
Patti Smith September 27, 2002 - January 5, 2003
At
the Byham Theater
Patti Smith: Words and Music
September
28, 8 pm
Some
celebrities are like thunder, rolling in and making a big noise then rolling
out again without effect. On the other end is Patti Smith, a force with
lasting consequence.
Now
in her mid-50s, the woman often called "The Godmother of Punk"
has been writing and performing music and poetry and making visual art
since she moved to New York at the dawn of the 1970s, sharing an apartment
with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and a stage with playwright Sam
Shepard.
More
than three decades of her creativity can be explored in Pittsburgh this
month when The Andy Warhol Museum presents Strange Messenger: The Art of Patti Smith. The retrospective
opens with an event at the museum on Friday, September 27 and continues
through January 5, 2003. On September 28 at 8 p.m., The Warhol will present Patti Smith: Words and Music at the
Byham
Theater, Downtown. The evening will feature Smith live in concert, performing
alone on acoustic guitar and with special guests. She also will read
poetry, including text that can be seen in the drawings exhibited at The
Warhol.
"Many
of my drawings are the result of merging calligraphy with geometric planes,
poetry and mathematics," Smith said. On display will be pieces from
the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art, including
portraits of Mapplethorpe and Arthur Rimbaud, the French poet whose
hallucinatory work greatly influenced her.
More
recently, the events of September 11th have been addressed in Smith's art.
"The structural remains of one of the twin towers greatly resembled Bruegel's
Tower of Babel. I am recreating this image with writings from sacred texts
and the names of the victims," she said. "Of course this is a very
simplified description," she added. "It is very hard for me to
explain a drawing. In doing this work I am meditating on the structure, the
victims and our world situation. What I've come to is that we need to
remobilize the anti-war movement."
Smith's
outspokenness is part of what has endeared her to fans for so long. Many of
her concerns are voiced on a two-CD compilation released this year on
Arista, Land: 1975-2002. Much of
the music is from the time when she knew Andy Warhol well. "I am
honored to have my work shown at The Andy Warhol Museum," she said.
"I think it is appropriate that my current work be shown here as it is
my first with silkscreen and using images in direct response to a public
tragedy. I believe if Andy were still with us he would be vigorously
addressing this tragedy."
For
tickets to Patti Smith: Words and
Music call 412. 456.6666. Prices are $25; $20 for students. A 10
percent discount is available to Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh members.
Opening Party!
for two new exhibitions
Americanisms: Shaping Art and Culture in the '50s and Strange Messenger: The Art of Patti
Smith at Good Fridays Friday, September 27 5-10 pm. Tickets $10. Preview
the exhibitions Fesitivities for everyone, cash bar Members-only VIP lounge
412.237.8300 for tickets
The Warhol Café
Chris
Noonan doesn't know whether or not Andy Warhol had a stove, but he imagines
that if the late artist did have this mundane kitchen item, he would have
painted it a glittering silver.
When
Noonan took over as manager of The Warhol Café last October, he really
didn't know much about Pop art. Now, almost a year later, the 25-year-old
chef has developed an understanding of Warhol's milieu and is using this
appreciation to create a new attitude in the museum's little underground
eatery.
"I'm
experimenting with what I call Pop food," says Noonan, who is an employee
of Pittsburgh's Big Burrito Restaurant Group, which operates the Café as
well as owns Mad Mex, Kaya, Casbah, Soba and other businesses. "The idea
is to use different ingredients and combinations to create menu items that
are fun and a little bit funky but of the highest quality."
The
results of Noonan's brainstorming turn up as daily specials on the
Café blackboard. Items include a
variety of Maki Rolls with unusual fillings; a create-your-own Pasta Bar
with choices such as Basil Pesto and Tuscan Tomato Sauces; and an Eggplant
and Feta Cheese Panini with Roasted Red Peppers and Calamati Olive Spread.
Through
museum staff Noonan learned that Andy Warhol had a serious sweet tooth, so
the Café's desserts - from a local bakery called Pastry Perfection -
reflect this interest. "Andy would go out to a restaurant and buy
dinner for everyone and order just chocolate cake for himself," Noonan
says. "He loved chocolate, so in that spirit we have the Café Brownie,
which is so good people have written poems about it."
A
special dessert on weekends is a Mini Lemon Tart. "Andy had gotten a great
recipe from Tennessee Williams for a Lemon Ice Box Pie and this is our
version of it," Noonan says. Offered every day are huge cookies, which
Noonan claims were Andy's favorite. "Why do you think he had so many
cookie jars?" the chef asks.
The
gaily-colored Fiestaware that Warhol also collected and helped bring back
into fashion is featured prominently in the museum Café. "Andy could serve
50 people on his Fiestaware. He made it hip again," Noonan says. To resonate
with the artist's taste, the little restaurant's food is delivered on the
pastel pink, blue and green china.
"The
atmosphere of the Café is very Warhol - from the dishes, to the aluminum
chairs and cowhide banquettes, to the bendable lights that can be adjusted
if you want to read," Noonan says. "Now I think the food goes along
with the setting," he adds.
Noonan
admits that one of the most frequent things he has to say in the Café is,
"Sorry, no, we don't have burgers." But he's not really apologetic.
"We need to be doing what's different. You can get a hoagie anywhere
on the North Side," he says. "I know I can't expect to sell out
of something like Beet Gazpacho every day, but I think the consciousness of
people who eat out is improving."
The
Andy Warhol Museum Café is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays
and Fridays until 9 p.m.
Americanisms:
Shaping Art and Culture in the ‘50s
Opening
September 28, to 2003
What
is American art? In many ways our concepts of American art and culture were
defined in the 1950s by the emergence of the Beat writers and Abstract Expressionism.
Yet the decade itself was a period of contrasts and extremes. It was a
period of transitions from one generation reacting to and recovering from
World War II, the atomic bomb, and Communism, to another being shaped by a
burgeoning sense of freedom and consumerism. The 1950s not only saw the simultaneous
emergence and success of Andy Warhol’s commercial work, Jackson Pollock’s
drip paintings, and John Coltrane but also established these figures as
representative of American cultural identity here and abroad.
This
exhibition, with sixty works drawn from the collections of The Andy Warhol
Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art-Los Angeles,
and the Grey Art Gallery & Study Center, New York University, explores
the varied cultural terrain of the decade. This is the first exhibition of
a four-part series, over the next 10 years, that will examine Warhol within
the decades in which he worked.
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