Press Release Upcoming Public Programs at The Andy Warhol Museum

EXHIBITIONS

The Word of God: Helène Aylon’s The Liberation of G-d and The Unmentionable

Through June 26, 2011
Helène Aylon (1931 – present) is a New York based eco-feminist artist. Aylon’s works, spanning over four decades, have primarily addressed biological, ecological and theological issues from a feminist perspective. Her work in The Word of God series features commentary on the Hebrew Bible. The Word of God: Helène Aylon’s The Liberation of G-d and The Unmentionable, continues Aylon’s ideas of how G-d has been confined by human translation.

Mixed Signals: Artists Consider Masculinity in Sports

Through August 7, 2011

One American stereotype that has never faltered from its aggressive, hypercompetitive, sexual brand is the male athlete. Mixed Signals: Artists Consider Masculinity in Sports, an exhibition of contemporary art that deals with the subject of the male athlete, features 17 artists. Some of the artist included in the exhibition are Matthew Barney, Catherine Opie, Collier Schorr, and Sam Taylor-Wood to emerging talents such as Shaun El C. Leonardo and Joe Sola. Artists in the Pittsburgh portion of this traveling exhibition includes Tim Hadfield, Wardell Milan, Duane Rieder and Michael Halsband. These artists as well as the others included in the exhibition expose elements of wit, sarcasm, and controversy, challenging cultural assumptions that gender is ever natural or innate. Instead, they emphasize the many ways masculinity is performed and socially constructed. Another theme of this exhibition pertains to the materials, symbols and regalia of sports, which often signify the prowess of the wearer. Mixed Signals: Artists Consider Masculinity in Sports is a traveling exhibition organized and circulated by ICI (Independent Curators International), New York. Guest curator for the exhibition is Christopher Bedford. The exhibition, tour, and catalogue are made possible, in part, by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the members of ICI. Mixed Signals is an expanded version of Contemporary Projects 11: Hard Targets – Masculinity and American Sports, and exhibition curated by Mr. Bedford and organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A 72 page illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition and is available at The Warhol Store.

Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project

Through August 15, 2011

That old Black Magic…the Tarot deck is many things: revered diviner of knowledge, feared revealer of hidden secrets, and critiqued promoter of quackish myth. Regardless of one’s take on Tarot card reading, it is certain that the history and imagery of these mysterious cards are ripe territory for contemporary artists to come up with their own interpretations of the 78 personas that make up the standard Tarot deck. This exhibition features some of today’s most dynamic artists and fashion designers and the resulting images are just as whimsical as an actual reading. The cards range in media (photography, painting and collage) and each infused an additional sense of allure and magic.

Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project is curated by Stacy Engman, curator, National Arts Club. This traveling show is presented and made possible by: KLÜP Foundation.

The Word of God(ess): Chitra Ganesh

July 9 – September 4, 2011

Chitra Ganesh’s artwork combines different visual languages, cannons and cultures, including comic books, Bollywood cinema and iconic goddesses from Hindu folklore. Ganesh creates cross-cultural narratives about sexuality and power that may sit in comic book frames where interior thoughts are revealed in bubbles or –as in her wall installations– hover in psychedelic space with three-dimensional elements that protrude into contemporary reality. This exhibition includes artworks based on the comic, Amar Chitra Katha, which Ganesh read as a young person and that is still in print today. The enormously popular comic (over 90 million printed) began in the 1960s to teach children in India and the Diaspora; about Hindu myths, Indian history and culture; as well as to teach children proper behavior through specific characters. Ganesh’s work based on the ACK comics is a 21 part work titled the Tales of Amnesia. This exhibition is the third in The Word of God series, which examines major world religions and their texts through contemporary art. Sacred texts are considered by many to be the direct words of God to man. How this Word is passed down and received is dependent on the people, languages and cultures in which it is presented. This series explores the questions: what is the best version of the Word of God; and does the artistic rendering of it enhance understanding or is some essential truth lost in translation?

The Word of God: Max Gimblett…The Sound of One Hand Clapping

September 17 – November 13, 2011

Max Gimblett was born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand; studied at the Art Institute of San Francisco; and since the early 1970s, has worked in New York creating paintings with Buddhist and Zen influences. Gimblett’s work comes out of the Abstract Expressionist tradition of gestural painting with reverence for the process of painting each splatter, drip, and stroke. Using diverse pigments, resins, and precious metals, Gimblett creates surfaces that are transformed synonymous with the transformation of energy in spiritual thought. Both Eastern and Western philosophies about light and enlightenment are drawn together in his symbolic paintings. He works on a variety of shapes – the oval, rectangle, circle, square, and most well known, the quatrefoil. The exhibition includes Gimblett’s quatrefoil paintings as well as his artists’ books The Koans series. The Koans are a series of mantras or sayings that when repeated clear the mind of conscious thought. Gimblett’s friend John Yau, a poet creates contemporary phrases that Gimblett illustrates with ink brush abstractions. This exhibition also feature a modern American version of the Sung Dynasty Chinese Oxherding Series, a set of drawings and poems that are a parable about Buddhist practice. http://www.maxgimblett.com/

Pittsburgh Biennial – Gertrude’s/LOT

September 17, 2011 – January 8, 2012

Once home to such cultural luminaries as Mary Cassatt, Willa Cather, Martha Graham, and Gertrude Stein, today’s Pittsburgh continues to produce and/or play home to some of the most talented women artists in this nation. For the Pittsburgh Biennial 2011, The Warhol assembles an exhibition dedicated to these artists whose work aims at transgressing boundaries and engendering transformative change in an apparent nod to Stein and her important life’s work. Artists included in the show either currently live or work in Pittsburgh, or have spent a period of many years here. Works included span all media and aim to challenge and provoke the status quo.

Heroes and Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross

October 1, 2011 to January 8, 2012

Heroes and Villains includes over 100 artworks by famed comic illustrator Alex Ross as well as additional works by Andy Warhol and Norman Rockwell. This exhibition, curated by The Warhol’s Director of Exhibitions, Jesse Kowalski, celebrates the strong influences of Rockwell, Warhol, Andrew Loomis, and Ross’ mother Lynette (a successful commercial illustrator) and outlines Ross’ career of redefining comic books and graphic novels to a new generation through paintings, sketches, and sculptures. Numerous iconic American superheroes are featured in the exhibition including Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and others. This exhibition is the first museum exhibition of Ross’ work. In addition to the exhibition, Ross has prepared an original artwork for The Warhol. This unique work will be available to the public in poster form available exclusively at The Warhol Store (www.warholstore.com). Ross will be on hand for the opening celebration on October 1, 2011. An exhibition related film series will screen throughout the run of the exhibition. In addition, Warhol’s uncompleted film Batman/Dracula (1964) will be included in the exhibition, which has not been exhibited since 1964.

15 MINUTES

October 1, 2011 – January 8, 2012

The Word of God: Jeffrey Vallance

December 3, 2011 – February 5, 2012

EVENTS

Series Zero-Sum: Lovejoy’s Nuclear War (1975) plus films by Conner, Lerner, and Doyle, Dane & Bernbach
June 17, 2011
8 p.m.

Lovejoy’s Nuclear War documents the earliest major act of civil disobedience against atomic power – farmer Sam Lovejoy’s fight against the proposed building of a nuclear power plant in the small, depressed town of Montague, Massachusetts in 1974. Features the late professor, activist, and people’s historian, Howard Zinn. Preceded by three shorts – Bruce Conner’s A Movie (1958), Phil Lerner’s My Own Yard to Play In (1959) and Daisy (1964), the most controversial TV commercial of all time.
Free with Museum admission

Gallery Talk with Melissa Hiller, Director of The American Jewish Museum of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh
June 19, 2011
2 p.m.

As part of The Word of God exhibition series, The Warhol is presenting The Word of God: Voices, an ongoing series of public dialogues and gallery talks by various scholars, community activists, artists, and religious leaders. These programs provide context for the artist’s work and spark dialogue about the issues raised in each exhibition.

Free with Museum admission

SOUND SERIES IN THE SCULPTURE GARDEN: LADYBUG TRANSISTOR with special guest, Joy Toujours and the Toys du Jour July 7, 2011
Carnegie Museum of Art’s Sculpture Court (Oakland)

8 p.m.

Presented By The Warhol & Carnegie Museum of Art
The performance collaboration between The Warhol and Carnegie Museum of Art shifts outdoors for the summer with two special evenings of indie folk/pop music in the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Sculpture Court, featuring Ladybug Transistor and Bill Callahan. Since their debut album, Marlborough Farms, was released in 1995, The Ladybug Transistor have been creating lush, formalist pop music over sixteen years and six albums. On tour supporting their latest release, Clutching Stems on Merge Records, the group (which at one time featured Pittsburgh’s own dynamic musician siblings, Jennifer and Jeff Baron as founding members), makes its 2nd appearance as part of the Warhol’s Sound Series with a new line-up featuring Gary Olson (vocals), Kyle Forester (keyboards), Julia Rydholm (bass), Michael O’Neill (guitar), Eric Farber (drums) and Mark Dzula (guitar).
Tickets $15/$12 CMP Members & Students; Visit warhol.org or call 412.237.8300 OR for both Sculpture Garden performances (+July 8 – Bill Callahan) $25/$20 students/CMP members

Media Sponsor: Pop City

http://www.theladybugtransistor.com/ http://www.myspace.com/marlboroughfarms

SOUND SERIES IN THE SCULPTURE GARDEN: BILL CALLAHAN with special guest, Hidden Ritual
July 8, 2011
Carnegie Museum of Art’s Sculpture Court (Oakland)

8 p.m.

Presented By The Warhol & Carnegie Museum of Art
The performance collaboration between The Warhol and Carnegie Museum of Art shifts outdoors for the summer with two special evenings of indie folk/pop music in the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Sculpture Court, featuring Bill Callahan and Ladybug Transistor. After 16 years of performing under the alias Smog, Bill Callahan began releasing his albums under his own name in 2007. A Drag City Records stalwart, Callahan continues his maverick songwriting with his new release, Apocalypse, as a follow-up to his last album Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, which became a fixture on top-10 lists of 2009, including 2nd best album in MOJO. With his signature baritone, the vivid imagery his lyrics and often stark overall tone, he has appealed to a diverse roster of artists who have recorded his songs, such as Gil Scott-Heron, Flaming Lips and Cat Power. The Austin-based trio, Hidden Ritual, opens the show.

Tickets $15/$12 CMP Members & Students; Visit warhol.org or call 412.237.8300 OR for both Sculpture Garden performances (+July 7 – Ladybug Transistor) $25/$20 students/CMP members

Media Sponsor: Pop City

http://www.myspace.com/smoggertone

Opening Celebration – The Word of God: Chitra Ganesh
July 9, 2011
2 p.m. Chitra Ganesh Talk – seating is limited
3 p.m. Reception – coffee, tea, lite bites and cash wine bar
Join us as we celebrate the opening of our third exhibition in The Word of God series, The Word of God: Chitra Ganesh.

Free with Museum admission

SOUND SERIES: TIMES NEW VIKING, with special guests, Passengers
July 22, 2011
8 p.m.
The Warhol welcomes Times New Viking from Columbus, OH, on their way to perform at the Celebrate Brooklyn festival, as part of a summer tour supporting their new record Dancer Equired on Merge Records. This young trio of art school graduates (Beth Murphy on keyboards/vocals, Adam Elliott on drums/vocals, and Jared Phillips on guitar) has developed a lo-fi, gritty yet ultra-melodic sound which has drawn comparisons to highly influential indie rock bands such as Guided By Voices, Young Marble Giants and the Shaggs. They were also commissioned in the fall of 2008 by the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, to perform a set of Velvet Underground songs related to the special exhibition of Andy Warhol’s film & video work, titled, Other Voices, Other Rooms. The new Pittsburgh-based group, Passengers, opens the show.

Tickets $15/$12 CMP Members & Students; Visit warhol.org or call 412.237.8300 Media Sponsor:

http://www.myspace.com/timesnewviking

IN CONJUNCTION WITH… Soccer as Never Before
July 29, 2011
8 p.m.
Soccer as Never Before [Fussball wie noch nie] (Germany, 1970) Directed by Hellmuth Costard.

On September 12, 1970, Manchester United beat Coventry 2-0. A record was preserved of the match that was [until recently – See Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno’s 2006 variant Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait] unique in the history of film and television. Using eight 16mm cameras, Costard followed every move, over the course of the match’s ninety minutes, of the man in the red #11 jersey, the mercurial George Best. As a reviewer commented at the time, the film’s concentration on one player actually shows “the true extent to which the sport is all about teamwork.”

Screened in conjunction with the exhibition Mixed Signals: Artists Consider Masculinity in Sports, on view through August 7, 2011.
Free with Museum admission

IN CONJUNCTION WITH… The Velvet Underground Tarot Cards

August 5, 2011

8 p.m.

The Velvet Underground Tarot Cards (1966) 16mm film, b/w, sound, 65 minutes. Directed by Andy Warhol. Starring John Cale, Nico, Susan Bottomly, Mary Woronov, Ingrid Superstar, Eric Emerson, John Wilcock, Lou Reed, Angelina “Pepper” Davis, Maureen Tucker, Sterling Morrison, and Danny Williams Originally shot as background footage for The Velvet Underground and Nico during their Exploding Plastic Inevitable performances, this Warhol premiere kinetically documents each member of the band having their cards read at a big apartment party. The tarot reader is continually interrupted in her readings by the chaos created by the characters around her.

Screened in conjunction with the exhibition Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project, on view through August 15, 2011.
This film has been preserved through the Avant-Garde Masters program funded by The Film Foundation and administered by the National Film Preservation Fund. Tickets $10; Visit warhol.org or call 412.237.8300

Opening Celebration – The Word of God: Max Gimblett…The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Saturday, September 17
2 p.m. Max Gimblett Talk – seating is limited

3 p.m. Reception – coffee, tea, lite bites and cash wine bar

Join us as we celebrate the opening of our fourth exhibition in The Word of God series, The Word of God Max Gimblett…The Sound of One Hand Clapping. Free with Museum admission

Heroes and Villains Film Series: The Toxic Avenger with special guest, Director Lloyd Kaufman
Friday, October 21, 2011
7 p.m.

A film introduction by Director Lloyd Kaufman along with a film screening of The Toxic Avenger (1984) followed by an audience Q&A session.
Tickets $15; visit warhol.org or call 412.237.8300

Heroes and Villains Film Series: Escape from New York film screening with special guests, stars Adrienne Barbeau and Tom Atkins
Friday, November 4, 2011
7 p.m.

A film introduction by Adrienne Barbeau and Tom Atkins along with a film screening of Escape from New York (1981) followed by an audience Q&A session. Tickets $15; visit warhol.org or call 412.237.8300

Heroes and Villains Film Series: Night of the Creeps film screening with special guests, star Tom Atkins and Director Fred Dekker
Friday, November 18, 2011
7 p.m.

A film introduction by Tom Atkins and Fred Dekker along with a film screening of Night of the Creeps (1986) followed by an audience Q&A session.
Tickets $15; visit warhol.org or call 412.237.8300

Heroes and Villains Film Series: Revenge of the Nerds film screening with special guest, star Curtis Armstrong
Friday, November 18, 2011
7 p.m.

A film introduction by actor Curtis Armstrong along with a film screening of Revenge of the Nerds (1984) followed by an audience Q&A session.
Tickets $15; visit warhol.org or call 412.237.8300

ONGOING PROGRAMS

GOOD FRIDAYS
Every Friday, 5 – 10 p.m.
Half-Price Admission and cash bar
For a more social experience, the Museum is open late with a cash bar in the entrance gallery and special half-price regular Museum admission. Many Good Fridays also feature special programs including music, film, performances, and more. Be sure to check our online calendar for specific weekly special programming (additional ticket pricing may apply).

The Weekend Factory
Saturdays and Sundays, 12 – 4 p.m.
The Weekend Factory is a lively studio program where Museum visitors can create art alongside Artist/Educators while exploring Andy Warhol’s artistic practice. It’s a collaborative environment where visitors investigate ideas about art and culture while working alongside Artist/Educators and staff volunteers.

Daily Films

All programs are screened in The Andy Warhol Museum theater and are free with Museum admission.