Body of Work: Philip Mendlow: American Jewish Museum. October 12 – December 18, 2009

Body of Work: Philip Mendlow

October 12 – December 18, 2009

American Jewish Museum



Opening reception

Wednesday, October 14 • 7–9 PM

Guest speaker: Thaddeus Mosley



Reception sponsored by Bernard and Marsha Marcus



The first comprehensive look at his extensive career that spanned nearly five decades, Body of Work surveys Pittsburgh artist and teacher Philip Mendlow. Drawn from his personal collection, the work in the exhibit represents the breadth of Mendlow's creative output. Revealing the connections and differences in his two and three-dimensional forms the exhibit comprises approximately 50 paintings, works on paper and sculptures.



Philip Mendlow was born in Pittsburgh in 1933. After earning a B.F.A. from (then) Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1954, he served in Paris, France, in the United States Army during the Korean War. Upon his discharge, he stayed in Paris, studying printmaking at the venerable William Stanley Hayter’s Atelier 17 and painting and art history at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, exploring the Loire Valley, Barcelona and the Balearic Islands. Returning to Pittsburgh in 1958 he established a career as an arts educator, teaching drawing and painting, and later becoming the academic dean of the Ivy School of Professional Art. After the school’s 1980 closure he continued teaching art at La Roche College, Carlow University, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh as well as Pittsburgh’s Creative and Performing Arts High School (CAPA).



Mendlow exhibited widely throughout the sixties and seventies throughout Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, and his sculptures are in numerous private and museum collections. Although in his later years he concentrated on teaching and caring for his wife, he continued his artistic pursuits, experimenting with new styles and developing new bodies of work. Mendlow was also involved with area arts organizations, including the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Society of Sculptors, and Western Pennsylvania Regional Scholastics, where he served in lay leadership capacities. He died in Pittsburgh, in November 2007.



Body of Work: Philip Mendlow is free and open to the public, Monday through Thursday, 7:30 AM to 10 PM; Friday, 7:30 AM to 6 PM; Saturday, 1 to 7 PM and Sunday, 7:45 AM to 6 PM.



For more information, visit the AJM/JCC at www.jccpgh.org/museum.asp, contact the Director, Melissa Hiller, at mhiller@jccpgh.org, or visit AJM’s Facebook page.



Funding for this exhibit is provided by the Anna L. Caplan and Irene V. Caplan Philanthropic Fund of the United Jewish Federation Foundation. The AJM is supported in part by grants from the Allegheny Regional Asset District, and the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. Media sponsorship is provided by WDUQ-FM.



American Jewish Museum of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

5738 Forbes Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15217