A & E

The "trans-Atlantic" artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976) no doubt is best known for his large mobiles and stabiles of painted metal, such as his massive mobile hanging in the center of the main terminal at the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport.

The son of an artist and a painter, Calder made his own toys and presents for his family even as a child, and he continued to create and give them to friends and family throughout his life.

If you were lucky enough to catch the Calder retrospective earlier this summer at Paris' Centre Pompidou as I did, then you know the works reveal the same inventive process at work whether the product was practical -- as when Calder made an ashtray-mobile for artist Saul Steinberg -- or purely aesthetic, as was the case with the airport mobile, one of many he created for public spaces.

Luckily, we Pittsburghers can find a similar playful inventiveness in the work of our very own artist-toymaker, Henry Bursztynowicz (1922-2001), otherwise known as "Henry B." The onetime resident of Squirrel Hill grew up in Lawrenceville.

A retrospective exhibit of the artist's work, on display at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in Shadyside, is something to see and experience.

Among the 30-plus awards he received throughout his lifetime, Bursztynowicz was the center's "Artist of the Year" in 1960. At that time, he was primarily a sculptor at the height of the abstract-expressionist and pop-art movements. He exhibited widely and had several one-man shows throughout the region.

Bursztynowicz was a graduate of Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). His advanced study was at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan and Instituto d'Arte in Florence, Italy. He was on the faculty at the University of Missouri and taught at Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts Center, the original name of Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

"Revisiting the Work of Henry B." serves as a retrospective that spans his entire career. In addition to a few works that were in his exhibit at the center in 1960, many of the works -- including his signature Travertine marble sculptures and cast-aluminum pieces -- were created subsequently.

Bursztynowicz's earliest works offer a key to his art, the art of an inspired tinkerer, of a magician who took basic, everyday materials and transformed them into true sculpture.

For example, for the piece "Corporate Struggle," Bursztynowicz brazed nails into a towering -- relatively speaking -- figurative sculpture. And not just a representative sculpture but a humorous one, in which the "man at the top" has his burdensome clingers-on.

It's an amazing piece, even more amazing for the fact that it's made up almost entirely of nails.

But even more amazing is the piece "Luxury Liner." Here, Bursztynowicz shows his true gift of ingenuity, utilizing more of his nail figures and having them cavort on a three-tiered houseboat, made entirely of brazed metal. It's worth noting here that this piece is a signature work in the center's upcoming Artist of the Year auction, "Augere," slated for 6 p.m. Aug. 31. It can be bid on live that evening, or online at pghfilmmakers.cmarket.com.

The remaining pieces on display are abstract, made of cast aluminum or travertine marble. And although most are rather austere, purely abstract explorations, some still have the artist's signature sense of humor, as in "Untitled Aluminum Turtle Form," which looks much like its name implies.

Many of these pieces were made after an accident in 1967, when Bursztynowicz lost the thumb and first two fingers on his left hand after an 800-pound piece of limestone he was moving for an exhibit at the center fell on him.

In many ways, these purely abstract pieces are reflective of the time in which they were made -- the 1960s and '70s, when abstract public sculpture was very popular and large abstract pieces were blooming within nearly every cityscape.

Thus, the occasional Bursztynowicz piece still can be found in and around town, usually in travertine marble, his favorite medium. For example, the travertine sculpture "Dove" is on display across the street from Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in the Ellis School, and another, untitled, travertine piece is in the collection of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield at Fifth Avenue Place, Downtown.

These are just a few works among several that many of us might have noticed throughout the course of our daily lives in and around town, never realizing the gifted artist who created them was one of our own.

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