PITTSBURGH – The Andy Warhol Museum latest exhibition is “Pearlstein, Warhol, Cantor: From Pittsburgh to New York,” opening to the public May 30.

This exhibition explores the work of Philip Pearlstein, Andy Warhol and Dorothy Cantor as students at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University), and as young, aspiring artists in New York City.

This period of the late-1940s to early-1950s was one of close association between Warhol and Pearlstein as they were fellow students, roommates in New York and enthusiastic artists working in commercial illustration. Cantor, one year behind them in school, was equally pursuing her work, but abandoned her practice to start a family with Pearlstein. This exhibition – co-curated by Jessica Beck, assistant curator of art, and Matt Wrbican, chief archivist – is the first to study this important early period for the three artists.

“This exhibition sheds light on the student work of all three artists – a period of an artist’s career that is usually reserved for research,” says Beck. “For the first time, audiences can see these early assignments and discover how the artists hesitantly and yet boldly found their way in the competitive art world. This glimpse into the past provides a new and exciting context for seeing their mature work.”

With Pittsburgh as the starting point for all three, this exhibition features a collection of rarely seen paintings and drawings for the students’ assignments from their Carnegie Tech professor Robert Lepper. The works include images of Pittsburgh cultural landmarks: the dinosaur fossil displays at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the interior of the Carnegie Music Hall, the old Duquesne Gardens arena, and others.

Pearlstein and Warhol graduated in 1949 and headed to New York City, where they both worked in graphic design. Warhol was immediately successful as a commercial illustrator with his blotted line drawings, whereas Pearlstein struggled to hone a marketable style, and instead began drafting book covers and industrial manuals, while working with some of the great graphic designers of the 20th century. Cantor struggled to find her way in the male dominance of New York; in 1950 she and Pearlstein married, and in the late 1950s Cantor abandoned her art to begin a family. Among other works, the exhibition presents her visual explorations of the built environment: bridges, highways, and Manhattan’s labyrinthine subway stations.

Told alongside the story of the trio as they relocated from Pittsburgh to New York is Pearlstein’s path from art school to the military, and back again. Pearlstein entered Carnegie Tech in 1942 before he was drafted in 1943 and assigned to the Training Aids Unit, where he first learned the screenprinting process and developed weapons assembly diagrams and map symbols. In 1944 he was sent to Italy, stationed near Naples, Rome, and then Florence, spending his leave time studying Italian Renaissance frescos.

Pearlstein first met Warhol when he returned to Carnegie Tech in 1946 on the GI Bill. He committed himself to carving out a distinct style, moving away from genre painting to experimenting with abstraction, a style he maintained until the late 1950s, when he progressed from painting landscapes to figures. Turning away from abstraction, Pearlstein became committed to figurative realism, his signature style. The current exhibition includes Pearlstein’s most-recent paintings – a never-before-exhibited new series featuring nude models wearing antique animal masks. This late series represents what Pearlstein refers to as his “most complex work to date.”

Supplementing the exhibition are period photographs of Pearlstein, Warhol and Cantor in Pittsburgh and New York. An illustrated exhibition catalog supported by Betty Cuningham Gallery featuring Pearlstein’s memories of those times accompanies the show.

Exhibition support is provided in part by the Fine Foundation.

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (AP) – Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette of France was nearly moved to tears by the Southern hospitality he enjoyed in Milledgeville in 1825.

His secretary noted in his diary that Lafayette was shown so many kindnesses at a ball in his honor that “the general forgot that Georgia was a new acquaintance.”

Lafayette was hailed an international celebrity across the nation 190 years ago during a nationwide farewell tour at the invitation of President James Monroe.

“He was one of the wealthiest and well-connected nobles in France, and to come and champion the cause of liberty, and not only that, but he took no money. He paid for everything himself, so it’s a quite a story,” said Amy Wright, executive director of Georgia’s Old Capital Museum.

The museum in the bottom floor of the Old Capitol at 201 E. Greene St. is hosting a new exhibit to commemorate the visit, “Vive Lafayette: the Marquis Arrives in Milledgeville,” which runs through May 30.

The Milledgeville celebration nearly 200 years ago included speeches, rockets, cannon fire, a hot air balloon and a picnic.

Lafayette feasted on squirrel pie and barbecue deer at the $6 a plate ball that night that would be now worth $146, Wright said.

Not only did he lead American troops to battle against the British, but Lafayette later secured French support for supplies, troops and a fleet that turned the war in favor of the Americans.

The young military man’s actions also helped bring about the British surrender at Yorktown.

Milledgeville will celebrate Lafayette’s contributions this week, culminating Friday with a 10 a.m. parade from the Old Governor’s Mansion to Georgia Military College, where a “welcome ceremony” is planned at 11 a.m.

The community is invited to a picnic on GMC’s grounds at 12:30 p.m. Friday before the celebration resumes at 6 p.m. with a sunset gathering at the Old Governor’s Mansion and a concert at 7 p.m. on the campus of Georgia College & State University.

GMC alumnus and benefactor, W.J. “Bill” Usery, who was U.S. secretary of labor under President Gerald Ford, is sponsoring the celebration in honor of Lafayette.

Entrance to the museum will be free Friday due to Usery’s generosity.

“He is so humbled about what GMC meant to him,” Wright said. “He is a wonderful, giving man.”

Lafayette’s sacrifices will be pointed out in the exhibit, including the rough carriage ride to Milledgeville that caused him motion sickness.

The wealthy French nobleman born Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier was taken with America’s struggle for independence and arrived in the summer of 1777 to volunteer in the fight.

He was not even 20 years old when Congress commissioned him a major general in the Army. He befriended George Washington.

The bond lasted all of Washington’s life, evidenced by Lafayette naming his son after America’s first president.

George Washington de Lafayette accompanied his 67-year-old father during the 13-month, 5,000-mile tour of all 24 states of the Union.

While in Georgia, he visited Savannah, where he was welcomed by Gov. George Troup before traveling to Augusta, Warrenton, Sparta and the state capital of Milledgeville.

While in Middle Georgia, he met with war veterans, including the man who in 1777 helped carry a wounded Lafayette off the battlefield at Brandywine in Pennsylvania.

He left Milledgeville on March 29, 1825, to head to Macon, “a small and handsome village,” where he ate dinner on his journey across Creek Indian territory on his way to Fort Mitchell, Alabama.

To learn more about Lafayette’s contribution to the birth of a nation, historian Marc Leepson will present a lecture “Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership” Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Legislative Chamber of the Old Capitol at GMC.

The museum exhibit closes with Milledgeville’s memorial tributes to the Frenchman who died in 1834 after losing his fortune and many of his wife’s family members during the French Revolution.

Lafayette took his love of America and democracy to the grave.

“He took dirt from Bunker Hill back to France, and when he died, it was spread over his grave,” Wright said.

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Information from: The Macon Telegraph, http://www.macontelegraph.com

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