On Wednesday, renowned Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson (1945-2005) was to have been commemorated with the unveiling of a Pennsylvania historical marker at the site of his childhood home at 1727 Bedford Ave. in the Hill District. The new marker, sponsored by the History Center's African American Advisory Council, recognizes the birthplace of the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and pays homage to the neighborhood that inspired him. This month, Wilson would have turned 62 had he not died of liver cancer. In honor of his birthday, the August Wilson Center has mounted the exhibition "Art for August" in the center's Gallery 209/9 at 209 Ninth St., Downtown. Organized by independent curator Janera Solomon, the exhibit features more than a dozen artworks in various media by 11 Pittsburgh-area artists. Each was inspired by the "Pittsburgh Cycle," Wilson's 10-play magnum opus that chronicles the tragedies and aspirations of blacks in a play set in each decade of the 20th century. It has been said that Wilson found inspiration in everything from blues songs to the collages of acclaimed black painter Romare Bearden. So it seems only appropriate that the pivotal theme of this exhibition is inspiration. "One of the things I wanted for this show was for people to use inspiration as part of the process," Solomon says. "So, the plays were inspirational, but only as a catalyst for more ideas. I wanted the pieces to reflect some internal experience." Wilson himself has said that it was a depiction of a struggling mill hand in one of Bearden's collages that inspired the play "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," which concerns an ex-convict's efforts to find his wife. So it was in turn that Saihou Njie found inspiration in the play, describing the various intertwining stories having similar themes to the stories he remembers hearing while growing up in Gambia. "It is as if the setting was at my home in Banjul, The Gambia," Njie writes in his statement about Wilson's play. Hence, his marker drawing "People Finder" not only reflects the play, but the intricate designs and interesting people he remembers from childhood. Vanessa German's "1839 Wylie Avenue" does not so much draw inspiration from Wilson's ninth play in the series, "Gem of the Ocean," as it does from a single character in the play, the "conjure woman," known as "Aunt Ester," who lived at 1839 Wylie Ave. German's mixed-media dress made of found-object assemblage and applique on a life-size mannequin stands near the gallery entrance and is a fitting tribute to Aunt Ester, who for Wilson emerged as the most significant persona of the cycle. Aunt Ester first surfaced in "Two Trains Running," and German writes in her statement about her feelings toward the character: "I believe that all black women are, in essence, conjure women. That, innate to our core, is the power to influence and inspire change, through recognition and belief in the fundamental truths of our humanity, past, present and future." This strong figure reflects that. Not all of the work is as confrontational as German's piece. "857 Whiteside Road," by Norman Brown, is a subtle, but powerful, little piece inspired by the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Fences," in which a former athlete forbids his son to accept an athletic scholarship. Brown, who grew up in the Hill District from the 1950s-'70s says that Wilson has a "masterful ability to take people home." So, in turn, he ended up creating a piece that was about his own home, choosing to paint the Whiteside tenement of his childhood, highlighting his family's particular unit in sgraffito and other subtle details under a suitably gray Pittsburgh sky. All but one of the plays of the "Pittsburgh Cycle" is set in the Hill District. So in an effort to connect to the black community at large, Solomon chose to include part of Chris Ivey's documentary film "East of Liberty: A Story of Good Intentions." "I wanted to include something that made references beyond The Hill geographically," Solomon says, "because even though August Wilson's stories are set in The Hill, his stories are relevant to black communities everywhere." In the 10-minute film, visitors will see bits and pieces of the former Pennley Place apartment complex, as well as images and voices of the various people who lived there. More a creative montage than the purposeful documentary from which the footage was drawn, Ivey says of the piece, "The purpose of this project is for the audience to see a broader vision of the film out of the context of a basic documentary." It does, but it does something more, making the people and places all the more palpapable and relative to a certain time and place. The effect is much like the plays, which are very much about the history of a people. Though Solomon says each artist was given a play that they were to read for inspiration prior to developing their piece, such as Curtis Cureton's wood-burning "Legacy," which is a literal interpretation of "The Piano Lesson," there were a few exceptions. One is Kyle Holbrook's acrylic painting "August's Life," which juxtaposes a portrait of Wilson with a variety of vignettes depicting relevant social circumstances that inspired the playwright. Another is "Echo" by Leslie Ansley, which was originally intended to be a portrait of sorts of Ma Rainey from "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Instead, it has become an assemblage of various ideas that, as Solomon says "loss and what one gains when things change." That, in many ways, is a telling statement about much of the works on display, as well as Wilson's own work, which masterfully chronicles the black experience of the 20th century. Hence, this exhibition is a fitting tribute to Wilson, one of Pittsburgh's most acclaimed native sons. Additional Information:

'Art for August'

What: An exhibit of artworks in various media by 11 Pittsburgh-area artists inspired by the 10-play cycle of Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson. Participating artists include Leslie Ansley, Norman Brown, Curtis Cureton, Elizabeth Asche Douglas, Vanessa German, Kyle Holbrook, Chris Ivey, Monique Kollman Luck, Mary Martin, Saihou Njie and Sarah Williams When: Through Aug. 31. Hours: Noon-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, until 7 p.m. Thursdays Admission: Free Where: August Wilson Center's Gallery 209/9, 209 Ninth St., Downtown Details: 412-258-2700 or www.augustwilsoncenter.org L

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---