Steel: Pittsburgh Drawings by Craig McPherson

Published in conjunction with the exhibition Steel: Pittsburgh Drawings by Craig McPherson, presented at the Frick Art & Historical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 8-June 8, 2008. Contemporary artist Craig McPherson (American, b. 1948) works in the urban-realist tradition, producing finely detailed, beautifully atmospheric renderings of urban and industrial environments. His preference for urban subject matter and unpopulated shadowy night scenes is evocative of both the Ashcan School of the early twentieth century, and the cinematography of mid-twentieth-century film noir. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue will include more than 30 Pittsburgh- and southwestern Pennsylvania-related works by McPherson, and an interview with the artist, who has been interpreting the region?s landscapes and industrial sites for the past twenty years. McPherson?s reputation was established with a 1983 exhibition of mezzotints, which included a view of Yankee Stadium at night, the success of which led to a series of high-profile commissions and exhibitions. His choice of imagery often depicts human impact on the environment?whether it be in McPherson?s portrayal of an abandoned vehicle, a glowing red-hot furnace in a steel mill, or the insignificant pools of light gathered around streetlamps in an urban night scene. In McPherson?s images we experience the visual drama of our surroundings?from the awe-inspiring conglomerations of the steel mills, to the desolation of a landscape scarred by overuse, to the graceful dance of bridges. His work returns our daily sights to us with a potent beauty that distills both the trials and triumphs of our past and present.