PITTSBURGH — The Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh will open a new art exhibit featuring more than 40 original paintings by artist Aaron Harry Gorson.
The exhibition, titled “A.H. Gorson: Painting the Steel City,” opens Nov. 14 in the museum’s fifth-floor Barensfeld Gallery.
It explores Pittsburgh through the artwork of Gorson, who documented the region during its period as the primary center of American steel manufacturing.
Inspired by Maxwell King’s biography “Fire in the Night Sky,” the exhibition brings together Gorson’s paintings from museums and private collections alongside historic photographs, archival records and physical steelmaking objects.
Gorson was a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania who arrived in Pittsburgh in 1902 after being commissioned to paint frescoes for the downtown Rodef Shalom synagogue.
Originally trained as a portrait painter, he shifted his artistic focus to the surrounding industrial landscape in 1904. While observers often focused on the grit of the industrial city, Gorson focused on light and color within the working mills.
A noteworthy painting of Gorson’s includes scenes of fire and smoke emanating from working facilities such as the Jones & Laughlin plant on Pittsburgh’s South Side.
To provide historical context for the workers behind the industrial scenes, the paintings are paired with archival items, including a 1904 photograph of a Jones & Laughlin open-hearth crew, 1931 footage shot inside a Pittsburgh steel mill and an industrial danger sign from Rivers of Steel printed in eight languages.
An interactive exhibit will also give visitors the opportunity to play with light and create art of their own.
.Support for the exhibition is provided by regional foundations and public entities, including The Heinz Endowments, The Richard King Mellon Foundation, The Fine Foundation, The Roy A. Hunt Foundation, the Allegheny Regional Asset District and Visit PA.
The exhibit will run through Sept. 19, 2027.
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