JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – For movie buffs, music fans and television enthusiasts, this showcase will provide a captivating experience.
The “Visions of Entertainment” exhibition will be on view Monday through May 12 at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Johnstown, at the University of Pittsburgh’s Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center on the Johnstown campus in Richland Township.
Viewers of the show will experience entertainment from the last half century through the collection of Mark Del Costello posters from SAMA’s permanent collection.
It will feature music, film and television posters, including rare posters of timeless cinematic masterpieces, legendary music concerts and groundbreaking television shows.
From Simon & Garfunkel to “Equus,” the exhibition will not only serve as a nostalgic trip down memory lane for seasoned fans, but will also provide an educational experience for members of younger generations interested in discovering the visual language of bygone eras.
“This exhibition is a tribute to the artistic and cultural significance of the posters that played a central role in shaping our perception of entertainment,” said Hannah Harley, curator of the SAMA Johnstown and Loretto Museums.
“We really celebrate graphic design in this exhibition and consider it an art form in its own right. The way we communicate and share information is part of our visual world, so we are very excited to share a few pieces from our incredible Del Costello poster collection.
The exhibition includes 30 posters.
“We wanted to show a real mix of film, music and television, so there’s variety specifically in entertainment,” Harley said. “For everyone who comes to see this show, there is something that will resonate with them.
“I think a wide range of people would be interested in this project and introducing it to this incredible collection.”
She said posters are visual media that can transcend what they are trying to say and can become part of our culture and lived experiences.
“There’s the poster for the movie ‘The Phantom of the Opera,’ which became such an iconic experience in the early 2000s with just the mask and very minimal text,” Harley said. “It’s part of who we are and what we think about when we think about the work of art, and in this case, the musical.”
She said showcasing entertainment posters was a natural fit at the Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center.
“It’s exciting for us because we have concert posters in places where there are concerts,” Harley said.
She said visitors entering the gallery will be greeted by a poster of Aretha Franklin designed by Andy Warhol.
“It opens the exhibit as soon as you walk in, and it’s this large work by artist Andy Warhol that promotes Aretha Franklin,” Harley said. “It’s fun with you from the start.”
She said the posters are not categorized by specific genres, but by how their visual styles align.
“Visually, you’ll experience different sections within the Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center space,” Harley said. “There is a space that features posters of monarchs and biographical films and plays that are all about monarchs and tyrants, so there is a flow to that space.”
She added that visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to explore the joys of design and how one art form can speak to another art form.
“It’s really exciting for us to see how you can restore a physical and visual artifact of a moment in time,” Harley said.
“Maybe you missed this concert, but here it is in poster form, and here’s the expression, and it’s really fascinating. I hope people can explore and sort of appreciate these graphic design experiments that have been a part of our culture for decades.
“There have been so many wonderful posters that have been published over the last 50 years, and we are delighted to see them being increasingly promoted as fine art. »
There is no charge to attend the exhibition.
Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday or by appointment.
For more information, visit www.sama-art.org.
2024-01-08 00:42:25
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