American Workman: The Life and Art of John Kane

by Maxwell King

American Workman presents a comprehensive, novel reassessment of the life and work of one of America’s most influential self-taught artists, John Kane. With a full account of Kane’s life as a working man, including his time as a steelworker, coal miner, street paver, and commercial painter in and around Pittsburgh in the early twentieth century, the authors explore how these occupations shaped his development as an artist and his breakthrough success in the modern art world. A rough-and-tumble blue-collar man prone to brawling and drinking, Kane also sought out beauty in the industrial world he inhabited. This Kane paradox—brawny and tough, sensitive and creative—was at the heart of much of the public’s interest in Kane as a person. The allure of the Kane saga was heightened all the more by the fact that he did not achieve renown until he was at the age at which most people are retiring from their professions. Kane’s dedication to painting resulted in a fascinating body of work that has ended up in some of America’s most important museums and private collections. His dramatic life story demonstrates the courage, strength, and creativity of his generation of workmen. They may be long gone, but thanks to Kane they cannot be forgotten.

Genres: Art

308 pages, Hardcover

Published April 12, 2022

Reviews

[William Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a native Pittsburgher, I knew the name John Kane, and feasibly could have seen his paintings at the Carnegie Museum when I was growing up. I knew he was an artist and that he was self taught. Otherwise, I knew very little about him before reading this engaging and comprehensive biography. Tough on the exterior and creative and artistic on the interior, He worked for Carnegie and Frick in the mills, laid cobblestone streets, and painted boxcars red after initially painting them with scenes of the city. A heavy drinker, he spent years away from his family and struggled to make enough money to survive. He lost a leg in a train accident. He lost a son and jumped off the Sixth Street Bridge in a failed suicide attempt. After finally being accepted by the Carnegie International in 1927, he gained a national reputation as a folk artist—“the American Rousseau”. This fame came at age 67, only seven years before his death. His works hang in the Carnegie, at MOMA, and at the Whitney. This book was timed with a Kane exhibit at the John Heinz History Museum in Pittsburgh starting this month. I love how his story is a quintessentially Pittsburgh story—a house painter who paints landscapes at night or on rainy days when he can’t work. A boxer who fell in love with paint. He saw beauty, as I do, in the industrial landscapes and rolling hills of Pittsburgh. His fame has diminished in the 80+ years since his death, especially since Warhol. I hope that this book and accompanying exhibit help to re-introduce this interesting artist to 21st century art lovers.

[Bill O'driscoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid bio of the pioneering self-taught artist from Pittsburgh, a Scottish immigrant who worked in mines and mills before losing a leg and became the first American self-taught artist to widely exhibited in his lifetime (he died in 1934). King covers the life, correcting misconceptions from a 1930s "as told to" bio of Kane. Lippincott offers a thoughtful and comprehensive look at Kane's body of work and deceptively simple style.