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“Grand opening / grand closing / God, your man ‘HOV’ cracked the can open again” — from “Encore” excerpted from “The Black Album” (2003) by Jay-Z.
Don’t blink or you’ll miss an interesting artistic event at the John A. Hermann Memorial Museum in Bellevue this weekend. “African & African American,” the fifth installment in eight consecutive weekend-only exhibits titled “Live Worship Shop: Eight Iconic Exhibits from the P.J. McArdle Collection” pays homage to this region’s Black artistic legacy.
At the invitation of museum Director Paul Cusick, Pat McArdle, a local art dealer, curator, collector and art historian, has raided his own vast private art collection to fill the exhibition space with pieces of work that have been seldom seen, never seen or completely forgotten.
Citing Picasso and the early 20th-century Modernists, McArdle traces the greatness of modern art directly to African iconography.
“Every great art collection has African in it,” he said, pointing out the influence the art has had on generations of 20th-century artists. “Art of the continent of Africa is so compelling and so strong and so visceral and all of these words … . Cubism came from that. It’s always been there. It continues to be there and I, as a collector, love seeing African with midcentury [art]. I don’t know what it does, but it pleases my eye. To be able to place African art with African American artists that I know, it lifts me up.”
For longtime gallery denizens, the names of many of the featured artists at the exhibit this weekend are part of a roll call that summons memories of the not-so-distant past: Amir Rashidd, Bo Hill, Lonnie Holley, Carl “Dingbat” Smith, Arnire Mosley, Dorothy Williams, Emory Biko, Charles “Teenie” Harris, Yourba Batunga, Steve Smith, William Palmer, James “Jam” Hough and Mr. Imagination.
The catch is that “African & African American” will be exhibited for only 24 hours in keeping with the time limit McArdle placed on himself for each segment. As Jay-Z said so eloquently on “Encore,” the best track on “The Black Album” — “Grand opening, grand closing … .”
This will be a drag for those who already have weekend plans they can’t get out of to squeeze in a visit to Bellevue to experience a show at what is arguably Western Pennsylvania’s most nondescript museum.
“I would not call it a pop-up show,” McArdle said when asked about the short time devoted to each exhibit over eight weeks. Unlike pop-up shows that happen in spaces like abandoned storefronts, libraries, church basements, lobbies in corporate buildings and private homes, these shows are happening at “a museum in Bellevue,” even if it is a space few knew existed.
“A lot of the pleasure [of this series] is in having people come to a museum that was established in the 1940s and has been at its present location since 1976,” McArdle said.
He hopes contemporary Pittsburgh artists will begin to inquire about the availability of gallery space and time after seeing this eight-week series. At a time of scarcity of exhibit space in Pittsburgh, the Hermann Museum can become an enticing option for both young artists and veteran practitioners.
“This museum was a sleepy little museum because Johnny Hermann did a thousand works and they’re all housed there,” McArdle said. “Occasionally, they would take some down and put other ones up.
“In the last couple of years, they started having exhibitions of local artists. When I found that out during one of the times I dropped in there, I told Paul [Cusick] that I curate shows.
“He said, ‘Well, if you ever want to do something, let me know.’ Months ago, I stopped by and asked him what he had going. He said nobody wants to do anything in the winter and I said ‘I will.’ That’s how I got eight weeks in January and February,” McArdle said.
Because he collected self-taught and fine art for four decades, McArdle said he’d devote “one month [to] this and one month [to] that,” at the museum.
“This could be a Guinness world record,” he said with a laugh. “For one curator, one person to do eight shows, put them in the car, get them into the space (occasionally l’ll have one other person helping), look over the space, mount them … I look, I hang it.”
Some of the work will be for sale, but McArdle plans to hang onto the bulk of it. He simply wants to spread the word about great artists from week to week and how his personal art collection reflects that passion.
“My wish is that people will catch on that you don’t have to be wealthy to collect art,” he said. “You don’t have to have an art history background. You can trust your own eye. You can go to an artist’s studio. You can teach yourself more about art. I believe it is a noble thing to purchase art from an artist that gives them some financial assistance and even more than that — confidence. ‘Hey, somebody likes my art. They want to take it and hang it. I put something down on paper or sculpted it and it goes to somebody who appreciates it and gets something from it.’
“And then the circle comes around and that fulfills something in the person who bought it. They catch something.
“My hope is that people discover the John A. Hermann Museum and more wonderful things can happen there because there are a lot of wonderful artists looking for places to show.”
The hours for “African & African American” at the Hermann Memorial Museum are 6-9 p.m. on Feb. 3 and 1-4 p.m. on Feb. 4. Rashidd, a poet, storyteller, farmer, sculptor and writer, will be in conversation with McArdle on Sunday. There is no charge to the public.
“Self-Taught & Folk Art” featuring vanessa german, Carl “Dingbat” Smith, Karl Mullen and Chuck Barr opens on Saturday, Feb. 10, 6-9 p.m.
Tony Norman’s column is underwritten by The Pittsburgh Foundation as part of its efforts to support writers and commentators who cover communities of color.
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