Art & Museums category, Page 16
Burt Bacharach, legendary composer of pop songs, dies at 94Video
Burt Bacharach, the singularly gifted and popular composer and Oscar winner who delighted millions with the quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies of “Walk on By,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and dozens of other hits, has died at 94. Bacharach died Wednesday at home in Los Angeles...
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum hosts blockbuster Vermeer exhibitionVideo
AMSTERDAM — Some art lovers make it a mission to visit and view as many works as possible by 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. Starting Friday, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is making their lives a whole lot easier. A blockbuster exhibition at the Netherlands’ national museum of art and history...
Holocaust Center’s ‘Revolving Doors’ exhibit focuses on persistent antisemitism
It was the Spanish and American 20th century philosopher George Santayana who said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” A new exhibit presenting a curated selection of artwork and artifacts from the collection of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is designed to drive that very...
Apsaalooke Women and Warriors exhibit opens at Carnegie Natural History Museum
Western Pennsylvania’s curiosity about Native American culture, particularly the Apsaalooke people of the Northern Plains — also known as the Crow — is being fed abundantly by a new exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History that opened Saturday. It continues through May 29. “Apsaalooke Women and Warriors” celebrates...
Saint Vincent art center hosts retrospective of monk’s sacred artwork
In his artwork, the Rev. Vincent de Paul Crosby is inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which championed handicrafts and natural elements in response to the mass-production push of the Industrial Revolution. Still, he’s not above using a computer in the creation of his designs. A member of the...
Photography exhibit reveals ‘Jeannette Unvarnished’
When Beth Yadamec worked at the Jeannette Public Library, she sometimes arrived early to spend a little time walking through the streets — and the alleys — of the city. “There are cameras all over Jeannette, and I have purple hair, and I often wondered if people glanced up and...
France buys new masterpiece for Orsay museum with LVMH gift
PARIS — France has acquired a stunning Impressionist masterpiece for its national collection of art treasures, with a donation from luxury goods giant LVMH paying the nearly $47 million for “Boating Party” by 19th-century French artist Gustave Caillebotte. The oil on canvas shows an oarsman in a top hat rowing...
Behind the Art: Ligonier museum intrigues Pittsburgh artist Robert Bowden
Though Robert Bowden is best-known for his cityscapes, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley is one of the Pittsburgh painter’s favorite subjects. He’s painted the log structure, just south of the borough along Route 711, in both winter and summer. In the winter, he painted while sitting...
An art director stumbled upon a stack of drawings in an antique shop. Could she make them the next big thing?
PHILADELPHIA — The antique shop was about to close for good when Claire Iltis stumbled upon the drawings inside. They looked like other-wordly collages, or stained glass postcards, all with a maroon-black metallic gleam. Preserved in fading photo albums, each was labeled with a looping, cursive signature: Dorothy F. Foster....
Spanish museum returns 2 paintings looted by Nazis to Poland
MADRID — A museum in northwest Spain returned two 15th-century paintings to Polish officials on Wednesday after it was determined that they had been looted by Nazi German forces during World War II. The paintings “Mater Dolorosa” (Mother of Sorrows) and “Ecce Homo” were handed over to a delegation from...
New photographs of Warsaw Ghetto found in family collection
WARSAW, Poland — Warsaw’s Jewish history museum on Wednesday presented a group of photographs taken in secret during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, some of which have never been seen before, that were recently discovered in a family collection. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews described...
Plastic as art? Entire grocery store created from discards
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A grocery store featuring thousands of faux food items made entirely from discarded plastic bags opens Tuesday to the public, an artist’s non-edible creation calling attention to the dangers of plastic waste. The Plastic Bag Store is a custom-built public art installation and film experience designed...
Van Gogh painting with mysterious past is immune from seizure, Detroit Institute of Arts claims
DETROIT — The Detroit Institute of Arts cannot be forced to relinquish control of a multimillion-dollar painting by Vincent van Gogh at the center of a federal lawsuit because the artwork is protected by a federal law granting immunity to foreign artwork on display in the United States, the museum’s...
Event at Carnegie Museum of Art rings in Chinese New Year
Like Indiana Jones, you may not be especially fond of snakes. But as Qihan Liu demonstrated, they can have a musical purpose. He was among the musicians giving demonstrations of traditional Chinese instruments during Sunday’s 26th Greater Pittsburgh Lunar New Year Show and Fair at the Carnegie Museum of Art...
Rip Van Winkle painting brings folktale to life
With his tattered clothing, long fingernails and bewildered look, Rip Van Winkle awakes from his 20-year slumber in an imaginative painting that hangs at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg. For children who might not know the tale, it can be entertaining to let them interpret the artwork,...
Artist from Export proposes mural to cover Route 22 underpass graffiti
As pedestrians and cyclists on the Westmoreland Heritage Trail pass near the Cozy Inn Cutoff, they head underneath William Penn Highway, where the underpass is covered with all manner of graffiti. If Export native Christina Donahoe has her way, however, later this year, it will be covered with the largest...
Behind the art: ‘Portrait of John Gardiner’ at The Westmoreland shows exquisite detail
Clothing style from the 1700s is on display in a portrait by artist John Singleton Copley that indicates its subject likely was a lawyer. “Portrait of John Gardiner,” which hangs at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, includes exquisite detail of the garments the subject was wearing —...
Behind the art: ‘Night Shift’ depicts Aliquippa steelworkers at The Westmoreland
It looks cold, the men walking on a snowy street, their hands stuffed in jacket pockets heading into work. “Night Shift” is more than that though. The 1936 painting by Ernest Fiene that depicts men walking to a steel plant in Aliquippa came at a formative time for U.S. labor...
Greensburg woman: ‘I’m a quilter who doesn’t like to quilt’Video
Despite describing herself as “a quilter who doesn’t like to quilt,” Ginnie Leiner of Greensburg has more than 196 quilts to her credit, having taught herself the craft in her late teens in the 1970s. “It’s a passion,” said Leiner. “An obsession, my husband would say.” More than a dozen...
‘Union Station Riot’ depicts dark side of railroad strike
A painting at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art shows the dark side of a railroad strike in 1877. The oil painting, titled “Union Station Riot,” depicts the station in Pittsburgh’s Strip District on fire during the Great Railroad Strike. Its artist, Martin B. Leisser, was there reporting for Harper’s...
Ligonier artist tells history through artwork
Steve Patricia had a dream when he was young: to someday work for National Geographic. Patricia looked at the nonprofit as an organization that created “art for science’s sake.” As someone who grew up interested in science, history and art, he was drawn to that type of work. “I’ve always...
Behind the art: Paperweights have pride of place at SAMA-Ligonier Valley
Glass paperweights are often found among the kitschy collections in flea markets and thrift stores, but they’re also having a moment in the contemporary art world. “They’ve actually become quite the thing again,” said Kristin Miller, site coordinator at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley. “In the...
Latrobe photographer Clare Kaczmarek earns 3-peat in regional photo contest
For the third consecutive year, Latrobe resident Clare Kaczmarek captured first place in the Places category of the 2022 Go Laurel Highlands Photo Contest, with a sunrise photo taken in May at Baughman Rock Overlook, above the Youghiogheny River Gorge south of Ohiopyle. Kaczmarek said she had to get up...
Behind the Art: ‘Dark Planet’ graces SAMA-Ligonier Valley sculpture garden
Soon after the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley launched its sculpture garden, a local philanthropist offered to add to the collection. “Donald Green, a gentleman who was very philanthropic to the Ligonier Valley, reached out to SAMA to see if we would be interested in having another...
Civic Empathy exhibits reveal Westmoreland history of slavery, racial justice
Pennsylvania was a haven in the decades preceding the Civil War for people seeking to escape enslavement in the South. But that wasn’t the case in Pennsylvania’s earlier years, when enslaved people and those who claimed ownership of them were part of the local population, including in Westmoreland County. The...
