Carnegie Museum Bagpipe Dance

It's usually the unexpected things that really make a place great. The great stuff inside the Carnegie at the AAP opening was somewhat expected---although this seems like a show well above the average of what I've seen. (As you likely know---No photos were allowed inside)

However, this strangely compelling bagpipe/ African Dance improv was unexpected. There's sort of a reason why this came to be, but why let that spoil it.

Imagine a loud bagpipe.

Carnegie Director, Richard Armstrong Resigns

To break the suspense, the other major piece of news from the Carnegie today was the announcement that Richard Armstrong will be moving on after 12 years as director.

"Mr. Armstrong has been at the Carnegie since 1992, when he was appointed curator of contemporary art and charged with organizing the 1995 Carnegie International. He became chief curator later that year, and was appointed director in 1996."

Richard oversaw many changes at the museum including the major expansion of it's endowment and collections.

Life on Mars - Sus wraps up

Life on Mars - Paul Thek
Life on Mars - Wolfgang Tillmans + Vija Celmins
Life on Mars - Marisa Merz + Bruce Connor
Life on Mars - Rosemarie Trockel
Life on Mars - Rivane Neuenschwander + Thomas Hirschhorn
Life on Mars - Haegue Yang + Ranjani Shettar

There has been, as to be expected, a lot of commentary and Monday morning quarterbacking about Life on Mars. The majority of the commentary seems to be from beyond the Pittsburgh region and ranges from comparing Life on Mars favorably to the Whitney Biennial to suggestions of what the Canegie International should have been.

On one hand, I appreciate what the Carnegie International brings to the region. Although I can't say I connected with every work or artist that was exhibited in Life on Mars, it is an important experience insofar as it brings a glimpse of a larger world to Pittsburgh.

On the other hand, I think that the Carnegie International exemplifies the disconnect between the international and regional arts spheres. Similar aesthetics, quality or themes are being pursued by regional artists, at least here in Southwest Pennsylvania. But the international sphere only has a few portals for entry, none of which are accessible regionally. The Carnegie Museum, as well as several of the other renowned venues in Pittsburgh, has a history of distancing itself from the region's art and artists. Given that, it is no surprise that Life on Mars does not reach out to include Life in Pittsburgh. In fact, the only participatory program for local and regional artists are in discussion forums where local artists are permitted to talk about their responses to the works installed in the Life on Mars exhibit.

Interestingly enough, the local arts scene has forsaken the Carnegie International too. The long-term planning for the exhibit and the length of the installation presents a raft of opportunities for the local and regional arts sphere to hijack some of the International's energy. But there has been no related exhibits in the city's visual arts venues, no matter what their standing is beyond the region. Instead, the banner that everybody is rallying to is Pittsburgh 250, the year-long celebration of Pittsburgh's founding. Not that this isn't significant, but surely the city is large enough to address multiple celebrations of significance.

Carnegie International Curator Webcast

Hi, this is John. I'm very, very sorry for disappearing on you and grateful that Susan has helped me revive the blog. The city really lacks a good art blog and naming the thing, Digging Pittsburgh Arts, placed a huge responsibility on us to try to cover the large, and widely dispersed art scene here.

Doug Fogle, will be available online tomorrow and in person to answer talk about the Carnegie International and some of the choices he made one of which was to try to create a dialog about the show online, which I appreciate

"In another of the firsts that have characterized the inventive 2008 Carnegie International, the curator of "Life on Mars" begins a three-part public encounter tomorrow with visitors to his show's Web site.
"On-line and On Stage: Douglas Fogle and Living on Mars" is a live Webcast lecture/discussion from 6 to 7 p.m. tomorrow at Carnegie Museum of Art. Fogle will respond to questions and comments submitted to the site (blog.cmoa.org) as well as to those from the auditorium audience. The exhibition will be open until 9 p.m.
This is the time to talk about favorite or not-so-favorite works in the International. What is the artist trying to say? Why did Fogle choose particular works and/or artists? What materials were used in a particular piece? Whither contemporary art?"

Life on Mars

Well, I was poking around a bit on the Carnegie Museum site, hoping that the promised CI08 website would be up. I did find an interview that was good -

From Frieze Magazine: James Trainor interviews Douglas Fogle
DF: The show will be about the relationship between a viewer and an object, and between the artist and the world. Viktor Shklovsky, the Russian formalist critic, wrote in 1917 that the revolutionary poet is one who can make the stone a little bit more stony. I love this: it sums up what an artist does, taking a little slice of the world and showing it to us again slightly differently. I think art can affect the world, and I think it does so in an intimate way. This is the kind of art that I’m interested in for the show. Read the article



Doug Aitken

Heart As Arena has posted about Doug Aitken a few times. I have never seen this artist's work, but given Brent's enthusiasm, I am looking forward to seeing what is included in the Life on Mars exhibit. Unfortunately, the sites I have been looking at won't allow me to snag any test for this post; you'll just have to follow the links out from Brent's posts. Please do, you won't be disappointed.

Easter Egg Hunt @the Carnegie Museum

So, there are flyers up around Oakland, near the Carnegie Museum.

Where are the names of notable women on the facade of the Carnegie Museum?
Some suggestions for inclusion are written on Easter eggs and hidden in and
around the museum. How many can you find?

Good Luck
E. Bunny

We at Digging Pitt have received further explanation from E. Bunny, in the form of the following statement...

March 29, 2007
One of the first interesting things I came across when I returned to
Pittsburgh two years ago was the list of notable women posted on the skinny
building in commemoration of Women's History month - women who might be
candidates for inclusion in the all-male frieze of names carved into the
facade of the Carnegie Museum. A self-addressed stamped envelope is not what it
used to be and my request for a copy of the list that LUPEC compiled went astray. I thought it would
be fun to write the names on the bottom of those plastic ducks they use in
carnival games and dump them in the fountain in front of the museum. I bought a
dozen ducks from a novelty store on the strip and finally found someone who
would download the names for me. Wouldn't you know it, the fountain has been
shut off for a month now because of some sort of repairs or construction. So I
bought two bags of those plastic eggs, wrote names and dates from the list on
the outside and scissored apart the biographic material and folded it inside the
egg: Then I posted flyers at the bus stops announcing the Easter egg
hunt after I hid them in, on and around the museum.

Another idea I had for using the names (which any other like-minded
feminist is welcome and encouraged to copy) was to write them on smooth stones
and leave them at the base of the statues of the four white guys outside, the
way that Jews leave stones at a gravesite, on a headstone, to commemorate a visit to
a dead family member. Or attach the name, with paper and string, as one would
tie a message to a stone about to be hurled through a window.

I had some questions about the list itself - it was unnecessarily long and
I found myself clipping a group of three or four and making them share an
egg.There was someone named"Roger" with no biographical or explanatory material
provided. Artemsia Gentileschi's name is
misspelled. And why isn't Elizabeth Barrett Browning's name included? I
also wish that it had mentioned that one of my favorites, Hypatia, had been stoned to
death by a mob of Christians.

Your Friend
E. Bunny

Happy hunting everybody. And thank you, E. Bunny.

Modern Japanese Prints 1868-1989 @ The Carnegie Museum

Images from Carnegie Museum Website

Modern Japanese Prints: 1868–1989
Through April 15, 2007
Heinz Galleries

Modern Japanese Prints: 1868–1989 presents a fascinating survey of woodblock printmaking during a period of dramatic changes in Japanese life and culture. This exhibition highlights master prints from the late 19th-century Meiji period through the developments in printmaking that occurred in the 20th-century with the new print (shin-hanga) and creative print (sōsaku-hanga) movements. The exhibition further explores the evolving role of the artist within this rich tradition, and the eclectic, sometimes idiosyncratic, but always passionate interests of print collectors. More than 200 prints from the James B. Austin collection at Carnegie Museum of Art and four private Pittsburgh collections will be on view.

The prints in this exhibition are drawn from the museum’s collection of Japanese prints, the majority of which were donated by Dr. James B. Austin in 1989, and from the Pittsburgh collections of Dr. Esther Barazzone, Nicholas Reise, Lila Penchansky and Daniel Russell, and an anonymous lender.

Modern Japanese Prints, 1868–1989 is made possible by the generous support of the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. Additional support has been provided by The Fellows of Carnegie Museum of Art.

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.

I also found this informative post on the show.