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Map of Pittsburgh Public Art
Made of aluminum and iron, this 28 foot
delicately balanced sculpture was the winner of the 1958 Carnegie
International. Dating to 1896, the Carnegie International is the
oldest contemporary art exhibition in North America. The Carnegie
Museum of Art acquired many of it's pieces through this event, which
seeks out the “old masters of tomorrow”. Originally it was held
annually, but now occurs about every three years.
Pittsburgh was donated to
Allegheny County and was displayed in the old terminal of the Pittsburgh
International Airport – but no where close to correctly. County
executives made some really questionable decisions and essentially
defaced the work of art and treated it like a toy. They painted it
to match the county's colors (green and yellow) and then monkeyed
with the way the mobile was balanced in order to change the height of
some of the arms. When that stopped the mobile from being able to
move, they simply added a motor! Sacrilege! As you can probably
guess, Mr Calder was less than pleased with what had been done to his
creation.
As a compromise, the sculpture was
painted again – this time with red on the paddles. It wasn't until
1979 that the county came to it's senses and restored the mobile to
it's original condition.
It now floats above the center portion
of the air-side terminal (at the top of the escalators) as it was originally meant to.
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