DREAMING OF HOME

HENRY KOERNER IN PITTSBURGH

By Melissa Eppihimer

“IT IS TIME FOR THE PUBLIC TO GET REACQUAINTED WITH HENRY AND HIS WORK.”

With these words of introduction, Caroline Boyce set the stage for a weekend honoring the life and legacy of the painter Henry Koerner.

Koerner arrived in Pittsburgh in 1952 to take up a position at the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University). Until his death in 1991, the city— and often Squirrel Hill—was a subject of his art. While many Pittsburgh residents recall encountering the artist as he painted in the streets, and a few still own examples of his work, Koerner’s art and life story are not as well known as they should be.

Joseph Koerner and Caroline Boyce in front of one of Henry Koerner’s paintings. Photo © John Schiller Photography

A series of events held from October 14 to October 16 sought to change that. All proceeds benefitted Friends of Neill Log House, which aims to restore the 18th-century Neill Log House in Schenley Park. Support for the weekend was provided by the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition, the Heinz Endowments, PNC Bank, Concept Art Gallery, Squirrel Hill Historical Society, and Chatham University.

The weekend began with a screening of a documentary (The Burning Child) co-directed by Joseph Koerner, the artist’s son and Allderdice grad who is now an art historian at Harvard University. Koerner, who was present for the weekend’s events, participated in a dessert Q/A at Silk Elephant after the screening.

The audience at the Manor Theatre witnessed a moving exploration of Henry Koerner’s Viennese origins and, as Joseph Koerner described it in his remarks before the film, “the dream of homemaking.” Having lost most of his family to the Holocaust, Henry Koerner returned to Vienna, the city he fled in 1938, throughout his life to try to recover—in whatever way possible—the home he left behind.

But Koerner also made a home in Pittsburgh, which seemed to him like Vienna’s double. “He found at that time in Pittsburgh, in Squirrel Hill, a milieu that was in outlook not unlike the milieu of his Viennese past, which was the assimilated Jewish intellectual community,” Joseph Koerner said during the public lecture at the JCC that concluded the weekend. Pittsburgh’s landscape also reminded Henry Koerner of Vienna, with its river, hills, woodlands, and baroque architecture. The house that he built on the northern slope of Squirrel Hill looked out over this uncannily familiar scenery.

Joseph Koerner and Caroline Boyce in front of one of Henry Koerner’s paintings. Photo © John Schiller Photography

As intended by Koerner, the walls of the house displayed his paintings, like these on loan for the weekend from PNC Bank’s collection. Since purchasing the Koerner house last year, Caroline Boyce has become a champion of the artist’s legacy. She also collects his art. She exhibited her collection, together with works held by PNC Bank, Joseph Koerner, and other private collectors, in the house during the Koerner weekend. Participants in guided tours caught historical glimpses of “Carnegie Tech,” Murray Hill Avenue, and long-gone butcher shops. They also learned about Koerner’s many artistic styles, like the graphic design of his war posters and the “magic realism” of his paintings.

By the end of the weekend, it was clear that Henry Koerner’s relationship to Pittsburgh and Squirrel Hill deeply impacted his art. They were the real-world counterpart to a home that existed only in memories.

As intended by Koerner, the walls of the house displayed his paintings, like these on loan for the weekend from PNC Bank’s collection.