Looking Out, Looking In

LOOKING OUT, LOOKING IN © 2014 University of Pittsburgh Press. All rights reserved. N A CURSORY LOOK AT overflowing with anecdotes, the work of Robert Qualters, images, brushstrokes, and color. Iyou will see a visual history Robert Qualters, in essence, is a of Pittsburgh sites: the bridges visual raconteur, a modern-day and neighborhoods, Kennywood flâneur who weaves fact and and the Carnegie Museum of fiction into compelling stories Art, the now demolished Jenkins that reveal human characteristics Arcade and Forbes Field. View- both universal and individual. ers love identifying these places Kennywood, Pittsburgh’s and filling them with nostalgic grand amusement park, began memories, just as they are drawn its life in the first decade of the to Pittsburgh scenes in the work twentieth century and remains of his predecessors: painters a much loved destination, fea- Aaron Gorson, Christian Walter, turing the famous, highly rated Samuel Rosenberg, and Henry Thunderbolt roller coaster. Koerner and photographers from Despite the explosion of theme O. Romig and Luke Swank to parks from Disneyland to Six W. Eugene Smith, Clyde Hare, Flags, Kennywood retains an and Mark Perrott, among many old-fashioned flavor, and its others. opening signals the beginning of But if they stop here, viewers summer in Pittsburgh. Qualters are doing a disservice to Qual- painted it three times: Kenny- ters. While the artist does fre- wood Memories—Who (1988), quently include his hometown, Kennywood Memories—Kiddieland he mostly utilizes it as a stage (1988), and Kennywood Memo- for personal and communal ries—Turning (1988). Each time memories, histories, and stories, he incorporates recognizable both real and fictional. To really park features as locations for ▶ understand his paintings, one childhood memories. Kennywood Memories— needs to read each and every Turning, 1987 Kennywood Memories—Turn- Mixed media on paper, 38 × 38 in. detail in works that are almost ing presents the site of the park, Private collection 46 LOOKING OUT, LOOKING IN © 2014 University of Pittsburgh Press. All rights reserved. © 2014 University of Pittsburgh Press. All rights reserved. perched on a hillside with a view the sky adds a pyrotechnic effect over the Mononaghela River to and a chance for the artists to the fiery skies above the mills of prove their reputations as color- Braddock. This perspective im- ists. A smaller version of this sky mediately signals that this work is found in the background of the expresses a memory because by other two Kennywood paintings. the time Qualters painted this This setting is one of the most scene the mills were fallow and memorable features of the park, the city skies, though gray a lot of but of course the rides are of par- the time, were clear again. Light- amount importance. The popu- ing up Braddock and the river, lar Thunderbolt dips and climbs the colorful skies, done primarily its way through the middle in pinks and yellows, have the ground of Kennywood Memories— fluid look of watercolor, creat- Who, and the Ferris wheel, which ing that temporary, ephemeral offers a stunning view of the hills atmosphere so revered by Impres- and rivers of Pittsburgh, revolves sionist painters. But in fact, the in Kennywood Memories—Turning. skies have more in common with Both of these rides create struc- Dulle Griet (c. 1564), a work by tural anchors in their respective Pieter Brueghel, one of Qualters’s compositions, and each work favorite artists. Brueghel’s work features visitors enjoying these presents the titular Dulle Griet, rides or strolling around the a woman from Flemish folklore park, having a snack, or watch- more commonly known as Mad ing others on the rides. These Meg, who pillages and plunders figures are especially interesting in front of the mouth of hell, in Kennywood Memories—Who, as which is represented by the fiery they cast caricatured, cartoonish skies in the background, an apt shadows of many colors. With ▶ parallel to the Pittsburgh skies these elements Qualters creates Kennywood Memories— Turning, 1987 when the city was called “hell the atmosphere of the park, of Mixed media on paper, 38 × 38 in. with the lid off.” In both works, that perfect vacation day that Private collection 48 LOOKING OUT, LOOKING IN © 2014 University of Pittsburgh Press. All rights reserved. © 2014 University of Pittsburgh Press. All rights reserved. many of us can remember even if image of the boy to the right in we’ve never been to Kennywood the foreground, perhaps a surro- itself. gate for or a sarcastic reminder The major focus in each of of the young Bob, who wears a these works is the kiddie rides T-shirt with “Cool Fool” on it. that become the locus for mem- Many viewers can identify with ories and associations. Some this particular anecdote, which is recollections are purely personal, such a typical childhood experi- such as when the artist remem- ence. Bob has a laugh at himself bers the sense of vertigo caused and his juvenile antics. While by the rides that went round and he looks back at his own life, round and round. In Kennywood he touches upon an experience Memories—Who, Bob reminisces common to male adolescents, about how he always tried ter- making his work accessible to a ribly hard to be cool. Although wide audience. he knew he was uncomfortable The personal references on those dizzying rides, he just continue in Kennywood Mem- had to prove himself. When ories—Kiddieland, where he it became obvious that he was positions a figure, who again going to be sick, his seatmate Ida could be himself, in the friezelike kept yelling, “don’t throw up.” arrangement of people in the Despite her admonitions, he did foreground. The little kid holds throw up over the crowd, losing a bright red balloon that looks an his cool quotient. He reinforces awful lot like a penis. Perhaps it his discomfort with a handwrit- is an earlier version of the big red ten text: “Who: Got lost? Found? one in A Life. The introduction Followed the big girls? Got sick of eros into the theme park is on the airplane ride and threw underscored by the cars coming up over the crowd below? Cried? out of a rocky structure, which Acted the fool? Was cool? Was it is similar to boats exiting the you?” Reinforcing the text is the tunnel of love in other parks. 50 LOOKING OUT, LOOKING IN © 2014 University of Pittsburgh Press. All rights reserved..

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