PDF - Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

CONTRIBUTORS
Philip Anselmo
Philip is a freelance arts and culture writer
based in Pittsburgh.
Joshua Franzos
Josh grew up developing pictures in his
father’s darkroom and attending Carnegie
Museum of Art’s Saturday Art Classes.
Now, as a full-time photographer, he travels
the country but focuses his attention on
Pittsburgh by shooting for various Pittsburghbased companies and foundations.
Jim Judkis
Jim is an award-winning freelance photographer specializing in education, health care,
and general magazine photography.
Barbara Klein
Barbara is a freelance writer whose work has
appeared in national and local publications.
She lives in Pittsburgh’s South Side.
Christine O’Toole
A Pittsburgh-based feature and travel writer,
Christine is a frequent contributor to the
Washington Post, New York Times, and
Pittsburgh Magazine.
Jenelle Pifer
Jenelle is a journalist and radio producer.
She often writes about science and the arts
and has contributed to NPR’s All Things
Considered, WESA 90.5fm, and Pitt Med.
Renee Rosensteel
Renee’s documentary photography includes
an embedded stateside project on National
Guard training exercises in Georgia and
California, coverage of relief volunteers in the
region devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and
an intimate look at life in Afghanistan.
Cristina Rouvalis
Cristina is a freelance writer whose articles
have appeared in PARADE, Hemispheres,
Fortune.com, AARP the Magazine, Inc., and
other publications. She previously worked at
the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as a feature and
business writer.
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CARNEGIE
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SPRING 2014
PHOTO: JOSHUA FRANZOS
FACE TIME n
What appealed to you most about coming to
The Warhol?
My interests as a curator lie both in long-range
research projects and in faster, more responsive exhibition-making. It’s rare that one has the opportunity to
do both but that’s exactly the situation at The Warhol.
I enjoy collaborating with my colleagues and
researchers around the world to bring new perspectives to bear on Warhol’s work, and it’s exciting and
energizing to do this kind of work while also developing contemporary shows with living artists and being
engaged with the local art scene.
How is the museum going about the complete
rehang of all its galleries?
Over the years the interest in the collection has grown
phenomenally, and as a result we are regularly sharing elements of our collection with other museums.
This helps us to expand the discussion around
Warhol and Pittsburgh but also has an effect on the
works on display in Pittsburgh. The rehang will establish a series of templates that we can work within as
we periodically rotate and refresh the galleries.
The most important factor motivating the rehang,
however, is a desire to tell the story of Warhol’s life
and work in a more structured way. There’s no single,
definitive story of Warhol; that’s something we’re very
mindful of. There are so many different ways to talk
about and interpret his work—different ways for thinking about who Warhol was and what he represented.
Will it be a chronological approach?
Nicholas Chambers
Curator Nicholas Chambers vividly recalls his first brush with a real Warhol. It was 1990
and the 16-year-old Australian was visiting the States with his parents, who took him
sightseeing to New York City and its Museum of Modern Art. “One of the things that
really struck me was seeing large-scale, mid-century American paintings,” Chambers says.
“It was the first time I really understood that art could be sensuous and about experience
while also being a serious, intellectual pursuit.” He particularly remembers Warhol’s 1963
silkscreen, Orange Car Crash Fourteen Times. Fast forward to 2007, and Chambers is curator of international contemporary art at the Queensland Art Gallery - Gallery of Modern
Art in Brisbane, collaborating with The Andy Warhol Museum on Australia’s first major
Warhol retrospective. The Aussie spends a week in Pittsburgh, poring over the museum’s
vast collection and archives. His tour guide for all things Warhol is the museum’s longtime
chief archivist, Matt Wrbican. The two hit it off, and the exhibition of 300-plus works is a
smash. Five years later, Wrbican calls Chambers with an interesting proposition: Would
you ever consider moving to Pittsburgh? Museum Director Eric Shiner was looking for the
museum’s next Milton Fine Curator of Art, and the staff had a good feeling about him.
Today that staff is in the throes of a complete art rehang in honor of the museum’s 20thanniversary celebration in May, and Chambers, who discovered the power of Warhol
almost by chance, is leading the charge. “People find a way to Warhol through all sorts of
different avenues,” he notes. “Warhol is about multiplicity. The story of his life and work
is forever unfolding.” BY BETSY MOMICH
On the seventh floor we’ll start in the ‘20s and ‘30s,
in Pittsburgh, and then visitors will move down through
the museum, progressing in a chronological fashion.
While chronology is certainly the overarching principle,
there will be certain thematic focuses as well. For
instance, we’re developing displays dedicated to his
moving-image work, including a new system whereby
visitors can select films and video to watch on
demand. We’re also renovating the third floor and
reopening part of that space so that we will again
have a permanent location to display the Time
Capsules and other archival materials. On the second
floor we’ll have temporary exhibitions, and in May
we’ll launch Halston and Warhol: Silver and Suede.
What’s surprised you most about Warhol?
Because we are always collaborating with people from
different parts of the world—last year this included
Italy, Azerbaijan, and China—people are always coming
to us with surprising points of view and different lines
of argument about Andy’s work. This is something
Warhol was very aware of and even encouraged—
different interpretations of his work, both within the
art world and also beyond it in the broader sphere
of popular culture.
What’s most exciting about life at The Warhol?
That we’re still making new discoveries. There are
films and videos that have yet to be restored, there
are still parts of the archives that are to be unpacked
and cataloged. The story is still very much evolving,
and that’s not something you can say about many
artists who passed away in 1987. n
CARNEGIE
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SPRING 2014
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