Strange Messenger
dal 28/9/2002 al 1/5/2003
Segnalato da
28/9/2002
Strange Messenger
Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
The Art of Patti Smith. More than 50 works on paper produced by Smith over the last 30 years, including a recent series of large-scale drawings inspired by the events of September 11, 2001. Patti Smith first gained critical attention in the early 1970s as a pioneering poet and performer who burst onto the downtown New York City scene
On display on the Museum's sixth floor,
Strange Messenger: The Art of Patti
Smith will include more than 50 works
on paper produced by Smith over the
last 30 years, including a recent series
of large-scale drawings inspired by the
events of September 11, 2001. The
exhibition will also feature original
manuscripts of her writing,
photographs, source material for her
work, and rarely seen video and film, including the short
film Still/Moving, an early collaboration between Smith and
her friend, the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
"Like Andy Warhol, Patti Smith isn't an artist who is easily
categorized. She moves fluidly through the genres of
music, visual art, and language," says John Smith,
exhibition curator and archivist at The Warhol. "Her work
and her career defy the traditional boundaries of both the
art and music worlds. To understand Smith's work is to
understand the organic quality of what she does."
Patti Smith first gained critical attention in the early 1970s
as a pioneering poet and performer who burst onto the
downtown New York City scene which was centered
around St. Mark's Church. After performing at the fledgling
underground music club, CBGBs, Smith was the first of a
new breed of musicians to be signed to a major record
label. Her critically acclaimed 1975 debut album, Horses,
featuring reworked classic rock covers, original songs and
stream-of-conscious poetry, is considered one of the most
influential rock albums of all time. Simultaneous to her
musical notoriety, Patti Smith also expanded her visual art
career. Her drawings, inspired by artists such as William
Blake and Antonin Artaud, and rendered in fine lines and
delicate color, represent a powerful fusion of image and
text. Her latest series of large-scale drawings (the largest
measuring 48 inches by 30 inches) are inspired by the
damaged World Trade Center towers after the September
11 terrorist attack. Using text from the Gospel of Peace of
the Essences, the Koran and other sources, Smith has
reconstructed the building's remains in an intricate web of
poetic language.
"I think the exhibition of Patti's visual art will be a real
surprise for people who only know her music or her
poetry," says John Smith. "The drawings are visually
beautiful and compelling and they extend upon her
intellectual, emotional and spiritual vision in new and
different ways."
The Museum will also publish a soft-cover exhibition
catalogue, Strange Messenger: The Art of Patti Smith,
featuring essays and color reproductions of Patti Smith's
work. The catalogue will be available in The Warhol Store
during the run of the exhibition.
Image: Patti Smith, photo by Oliver Ray
Andy Warhol Museum
117 Sandusky Street. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15212-5890 USA