Pittsburgh Shines with New Light Exhibit

At the Carnegie Museum of Art, a new exhibit called "Light! The Industrial Age 1750-1900, Art & Science, Technology and Society" focuses on the era when discoveries about natural and artificial light transformed art as well as everyday life. Featuring more than 300 works by major painters and other artists, as well as scientific and historic objects of the 18th and 19th centuries, the exhibit includes many works that have never been exhibited in the United States. Organized in partnership with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam where it was previously on view, Pittsburgh is the only other venue for this exhibit, which remains on view through July 29.

According to curator and co-organizer Louise Lippincott, "Light is a fundamental element of life and something that can be taken for granted ... This exhibit is all about experience--how we experience light versus how scientists and artists of that era experienced it and portrayed it."

"Light" features artworks in diverse media, including drawing, painting, etching, sculpture, photography and film. Artists include William Blake, Francisco de Goya, Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Signac and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Andreas Bluhm of the Van Gogh Museum believes the exhibit gives visitors a chance to appreciate how even the greatest artists struggled with the new technology. "Van Gogh mentioned in his letters that his paintings looked different in daylight and gaslight," said Bluhm. "Visitors to the exhibit will be able to see exactly what he meant. They will see the colors of one of his paintings change in different lights."

Alongside the artists, the exhibit showcases the careers of scientific luminaries such as Newton, Edison, Daguerre and Westinghouse and features microscopes, kerosene and oil lamps, gaslights, a wide variety of early electric light sources, as well as popular science texts and trade catalogs. The exhibit also demonstrates how light has been used as a medium for entertainment with early projection lanterns, kaleidoscopes, x-rays and early motion pictures.