Of all the rooms in all the museums, this may be the happiest. The Silver Clouds at The Andy Warhol Museum — Warhol’s 1966 installation of helium-filled silver balloons, made with engineer Billy Klüver — drift, bump and wander around the gallery, inviting visitors to walk among them as they float at eye level.
Warhol wanted art you could move through — his ‘floating sculpture’ was a sly, delightful rebellion against paintings chained to walls. The museum keeps the clouds aloft in a dedicated gallery, replenishing the balloons as they tire, and watching visitors’ faces in that room has become a Pittsburgh pastime in itself: everyone smiles. Everyone.
The Silver Clouds are part of the permanent installation at The Andy Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky Street on the North Shore. Included with admission; details at warhol.org.
