A lot like a Church picnic
Saturday afternoon Myles and I went to an annual Carpatho-Rusyn event. There were folk singers, dancing, artisan demonstrations, ethnic food--all the makings of a Pittsburgh church picnic except instead of at a church this was held at the Warhol Museum.
Yeah you read that right.
This was the 9th annual Carpatho-Rusyn Event hosted at the Warhol. Andy Warhol's birth name was Andrew Warhola. His parents were Carpatho-Rusyn emigres from Mikova, which is now in Slovokia. He had dropped the "a" to Americanize his name further, to distance himself from his Old World-in-America upbringing. The rest of his family that remains in Pittsburgh continue to use the Warhola name. It is somewhat ironic, I think, that a man as famous as Andy Warhol that was so determined to shake that dust from his feet ("I'm from nowhere," he used to say) and whose art barely reflected his ethnicity at all, inspires such ethnic pride in the local Pittsburgh Rusyn community. And a museum dedicated to him and the kind of art he inspires is an annual site of a hard-core ethnic festival. I mean, the last Warhol event I attended feted a man in a cocktail dress.
For instance, in the theater where screenings of Chelsea Girls or John Waters Festivals are the usual offerings, a traditional Rusyn folk group performed.
In the underground cafe, where hipper fare is usually served by Big Burrito Productions, a traditional Carpatho-Rusyn menu was served. Look at these prices! It really was like a church picnic. A dollar for a pirohy (pierogie)? And when I was down there they even ran out of halushky.
Several area artisans were there demonstrating their craft. In addition to a traditional iconographer Michael Fedorko, and the skilled Bonnie Balas with her visivky (embroidery), was Joseph Borytsky and his Pysanky. He had several styles on display, such as brown eggs with icons, pastel colors, and the traditional black eggs with the traditional symbols. Some of the symbols, like the fish, date back to their pagan times and were Christianized. Here he is dropping and pulling the wax.
How else was this just like a church picnic? Well, there certainly were a lot of elderly people there. I saw priests. PRIESTS!! People were talking about the Easter basket blessings at their parishes, what they were going to do with their catechism classes this year. All this in a museum typically dedicated to the art from and inspired by the late 20th century Downtown Decadence!
In front of the Warhol-Basquiat collaboration Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper) and near several of Warhol's other Last Supper silkscreens played a slideshow of Warhola family photos. The accompanying soundtrack was recently restored recordings of Julia Warhola (Warhol's mother) singing a capella (of course) Rusyn hymns and chants as well as some folk songs. She made the recordings in the 1950s after she followed Warhol to New York to help take care of him (and his cats). That was absolutely beautiful and such an historic treasure played for the first time publicly on Saturday. There was also an exhibit of Julia Warhola's own drawings of cats and angels. These looked a lot like some of the early drawings by Warhol himself. This drawing, also by Julia Warhola, is similar though it wasn't included. Most were signed "Andy Warhol's Mother." If you are familiar with that curly script that is frequently associated with Warhol you might be surprised to know that it was actually his mother's handwriting. He liked her Old World penmanship so much he had her letter some of his art for him.
So, what would a trip to any art museum be without the Myles art project? I mean really?
One of his projects was an exercise in Iconography. Because this as the Warhol he could do a religious Icon (either a Madonna and Child or St. John) or a Pop Icon (Warhol himself or Marilyn Monroe). He chose St. John. Not unlike to real iconography, the project started with a pattern. In this case the outline was printed on transparency film. As Mr. Fedorko explained to us, Iconography is the only major art form where copying is necessary, where it is a theological rule even.
Under the transparency film he glued cut-outs of different colored papers and some wall paper. Some people, the grown-ups that is, followed their outlines closely. Myles on the other hand......well the effect was pretty cool in its own right.
Let the gluesticks fly!
His finished Icon. Later that afternoon I pointed out to Myles the similarities between his Icon and some of the other Last Suppers in the museum. He was quite proud.
I didn't include in this post an extensive explanation of what Carpatho-Rusyns are because I am hoping that in the comments LC can provide a link to an excellent post she did a few years ago about this ethnic population that spanned across modern-day Poland, Ukraine, and Slovakia. I believe Pittsburgh was the site of the greatest number of their emigres, but LC might prove me wrong.
Yeah you read that right.
This was the 9th annual Carpatho-Rusyn Event hosted at the Warhol. Andy Warhol's birth name was Andrew Warhola. His parents were Carpatho-Rusyn emigres from Mikova, which is now in Slovokia. He had dropped the "a" to Americanize his name further, to distance himself from his Old World-in-America upbringing. The rest of his family that remains in Pittsburgh continue to use the Warhola name. It is somewhat ironic, I think, that a man as famous as Andy Warhol that was so determined to shake that dust from his feet ("I'm from nowhere," he used to say) and whose art barely reflected his ethnicity at all, inspires such ethnic pride in the local Pittsburgh Rusyn community. And a museum dedicated to him and the kind of art he inspires is an annual site of a hard-core ethnic festival. I mean, the last Warhol event I attended feted a man in a cocktail dress.
For instance, in the theater where screenings of Chelsea Girls or John Waters Festivals are the usual offerings, a traditional Rusyn folk group performed.
In the underground cafe, where hipper fare is usually served by Big Burrito Productions, a traditional Carpatho-Rusyn menu was served. Look at these prices! It really was like a church picnic. A dollar for a pirohy (pierogie)? And when I was down there they even ran out of halushky.
Several area artisans were there demonstrating their craft. In addition to a traditional iconographer Michael Fedorko, and the skilled Bonnie Balas with her visivky (embroidery), was Joseph Borytsky and his Pysanky. He had several styles on display, such as brown eggs with icons, pastel colors, and the traditional black eggs with the traditional symbols. Some of the symbols, like the fish, date back to their pagan times and were Christianized. Here he is dropping and pulling the wax.
How else was this just like a church picnic? Well, there certainly were a lot of elderly people there. I saw priests. PRIESTS!! People were talking about the Easter basket blessings at their parishes, what they were going to do with their catechism classes this year. All this in a museum typically dedicated to the art from and inspired by the late 20th century Downtown Decadence!
In front of the Warhol-Basquiat collaboration Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper) and near several of Warhol's other Last Supper silkscreens played a slideshow of Warhola family photos. The accompanying soundtrack was recently restored recordings of Julia Warhola (Warhol's mother) singing a capella (of course) Rusyn hymns and chants as well as some folk songs. She made the recordings in the 1950s after she followed Warhol to New York to help take care of him (and his cats). That was absolutely beautiful and such an historic treasure played for the first time publicly on Saturday. There was also an exhibit of Julia Warhola's own drawings of cats and angels. These looked a lot like some of the early drawings by Warhol himself. This drawing, also by Julia Warhola, is similar though it wasn't included. Most were signed "Andy Warhol's Mother." If you are familiar with that curly script that is frequently associated with Warhol you might be surprised to know that it was actually his mother's handwriting. He liked her Old World penmanship so much he had her letter some of his art for him.
So, what would a trip to any art museum be without the Myles art project? I mean really?
One of his projects was an exercise in Iconography. Because this as the Warhol he could do a religious Icon (either a Madonna and Child or St. John) or a Pop Icon (Warhol himself or Marilyn Monroe). He chose St. John. Not unlike to real iconography, the project started with a pattern. In this case the outline was printed on transparency film. As Mr. Fedorko explained to us, Iconography is the only major art form where copying is necessary, where it is a theological rule even.
Under the transparency film he glued cut-outs of different colored papers and some wall paper. Some people, the grown-ups that is, followed their outlines closely. Myles on the other hand......well the effect was pretty cool in its own right.
Let the gluesticks fly!
His finished Icon. Later that afternoon I pointed out to Myles the similarities between his Icon and some of the other Last Suppers in the museum. He was quite proud.
I didn't include in this post an extensive explanation of what Carpatho-Rusyns are because I am hoping that in the comments LC can provide a link to an excellent post she did a few years ago about this ethnic population that spanned across modern-day Poland, Ukraine, and Slovakia. I believe Pittsburgh was the site of the greatest number of their emigres, but LC might prove me wrong.
Comments
My post on the Rusyns was actually pretty brief, but I did link to a good article from the PG that's worth checking out. Pittsburgh does indeed have the largest group in the U.S. (And the U.S. has the second largest Rusyn population in the world.)