1958
October 4, 2008 – January 11, 2009
It was the year in which American teenage girls said their sad goodbyes as Elvis Pressley was inducted into the U.S. Army; Nikita Krushchev and General Charles De Gaulle became world leaders; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened its doors for the first time;
Breakfast at Tiffany’s and
Dr. Zhivago topped the bestseller lists; and while the Explorer Satellite was sent into space and the U.S. Supreme Court mandated school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas, America’s kids danced the “Cha Cha”, swirled Hula Hoops around their hips and dressed Barbie.
As part of the continuing celebration of the 250th Birthday of the City of Pittsburgh, The Andy Warhol Museum will mount an exhibition titled 1958 which will chronicle the events of that year when Pittsburgh last celebrated a momentous anniversary. The exhibition will be a pop cultural exploration of the trends, both high and low, which mapped out the aspirations and antics of this prime year of the U.S. Baby Boom.
Juxtaposing advertizing campaigns from the local billboard company, Lamar Advertizing, with the products and product spiel-meisters of the burgeoning television era like the Popiel Brothers alongside classic movie posters, and memorabilia from the infamous Ford Edsel fiasco, the exhibition will give new insight to the era that was so brilliantly portrayed in the period book,
The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit and is now being revived in the current TV series
Mad Men. Some never-before-seen works by Andy Warhol from this period will be displayed as well.
All of the above will be juxtaposed with a brand new portfolio of photographs by the artist-duo McDermott and McGough entitled “Detroit 1958” which evokes the coming-of-age, dreamy vignettes of the car capital’s upper class teens.
This exhibition has been curated by The Warhol’s Director, Tom Sokolowski. Accompanying the exhibition will be a series of films, readings, and lectures.
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