Maxwell King has brought local luminaries Fred Rogers and John Kane to vivid life on the page in recent years with his biographies.<\/p>\n
His newest book, published on Tuesday, highlights early 20th-century industrial artist Aaron Harry Gorson.<\/p>\n
\u201cFire in the Night Sky: The Steel Mill Paintings of Aaron Gorson\u201d has been a multiyear endeavor for the former Philadelphia Inquirer editor-in-chief and Heinz Endowments executive.<\/p>\n
King, 82, said that the subject of Gorson was presented to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CEO of Globe Pequot Publishing Group, which has about 15 different imprints and does a lot of history and biography, approached me and said, \u2018I really like your book about John Kane, you ought to do a book about Aaron Gorson.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Gorson\u2019s boring,\u2019\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
With a little bit of research, however, King quickly became enchanted by both Gorson\u2019s artistic style and the way that he portrayed Pittsburgh in paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s as much a story about Pittsburgh as it is about Aaron Gorson,\u201d King said. \u201cHe was captured by the beauty and the power of the mills, particularly at night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gorson was a Lithuanian immigrant who came to Philadelphia and then went to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. King\u2019s book chronicles the artist\u2019s life, but also places his works into the context of Southwestern Pennsylvania, a center of the industrial world at the time.<\/p>\n
In addition to being a thorough chronicle of Gorson\u2019s life and artistic career in the industrial district of Pittsburgh during the very early 1900s, \u201cFire in the Night Sky\u201d also includes color pictures of about 40 of Gorson\u2019s works.<\/p>\n
When King began the journey for this book, his first stops were the museums that heavily feature Gorson\u2019s works: the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh, and the Steidle Collection of American Industrial Art at Penn State University in State College.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a great start with those four museum collections,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
Those institutions also understand the importance of the artist\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\u201cAaron Harry Gorson\u2019s dramatic depictions of Pittsburgh\u2019s steel mills made him the best-known painter of industrial landscapes during his time, while also leaving an invaluable visual record of the region\u2019s vital role in America\u2019s Big Steel Era,\u201d said Dr. Erica Nuckles, director of learning, engagement and programs at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.<\/p>\n
Much like his previous two biographies, King spent plenty of time researching and writing simultaneously, following interesting facts wherever they took him to inform the final product.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou pull on a thread and you get something really interesting, and another thread pops up over here and you pull on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The longtime journalist gained an appreciation for Gorson\u2019s portrayal of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
\u201cPittsburgh was quite a center of artistic activity with a lot of artists working in Pittsburgh, and many of them were getting on trains in Downtown Pittsburgh, riding right past the steel mills out to Westmoreland and Cambria counties to paint landscapes,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
Gorson didn\u2019t overlook the urban scenes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe saw the industry was a wonderful subject for painting. I think that vision is the most arresting part of his story,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
He also discussed how Gorson\u2019s use of color and light effectively captured the sights of the city at that time. King took the title of his book from some of Gorson\u2019s most striking works.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis depictions of the steel mills at night have bright gold and yellow and silver colors against really dark gray, blue, purple, black colors.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his third biography, King is still writing, just trying something a little different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve actually got another book coming out next year,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a novel, it was really a stretch for me.\u201d<\/p>\n