Rockwell Kent (Is Not Norman Rockwell)

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was a prolific American painter, printmaker, illustrator, and designer, well known and most successful during the 1920s and ‘30s as part of the artistic and design circles of Manhattan. He studied with William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, Arthur Wesley Dow, and Abbott Thayer. Despite being a modernist he was an outspoken critic of abstract expressionism.

He was also a writer, carpenter, house architect and builder, and a farmer and owner of a dairy. An adventurer, he visited, wrote about and painted dangerous cold- weather locations, often risking his life. A ladies’ man who married three times, he had five children, and several mistresses.

He became a Socialist in 1908, but he was not actively involved in politics until the 1930s when he began participating in left-wing activities, which continued through the Cold War and lasted through- out his life.

Kent fell into obscurity in the 1950s and could barely make a living as an artist or illustrator during the last twenty years of his life. Since his death there has been a resurgence of interest in his life and art.

PRESENTED BY
Herschel Kanter, who will show samples from his Kentiana collection.