Welcome to “The Rockwell Kent Forum.”
This website is designed to be a forum, hence the title. A hub or Kentapedia for people with an interest in Rockwell Kent, collectors and researchers, to use.
The Articles page has links to the latest articles on Rockwell Kent, so a person does not have to go running through page after page of Google or Bing searching to find something. The Useful Links page has links to websites that are important to the Kent world.
In addition to links to articles, we have published original material, which can be found at Special Collections or at our Greenland page. The digital format allows for quicker turnaround and publication. Our desire is to publish short articles that will help show different parts of Rockwell Kent’s world. Or, feel free to write how you found out about Rockwell Kent, what are your favorite pieces, any questions that you have about a piece, anything at all. You can also contact us on Facebook or Instagram (click on the appropriate icon in the header)
The world of Rockwell Kent is vast, and intensely interesting. It is our hope that this website will help in navigating that world. Take a look and enjoy the website. Feel free to send us an email at willross@rockwellkent.us and let us know what you think.
Latest News
Christy Gillespie to teach a course about Glenlough!
Our Irish Correspondent, Christie Gillespie will be conducting a course for Oideas Gael, Glencolmcille, from Friday 3rd May to Monday 6 May 2024, outlining the fascinating history of Glenlough Valley. Oideas Gael is an adult Irish language school.
‘The Road to Glenlough’ got a nice mention in the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ on Saturday, October 7th, 2023!
Our Irish Correspondent, Christy Gillespie reports:
Author and Irish Times columnist Paul Clements was the guest in the paper’s weekly ‘Take Five’ slot. In answer to the first question “Favourite Book?” he had the following to say:
” … I’m currently reading a magisterial book by Christy Gillespie about famous visitors to the isolated valley of Glen Lough in Donegal. I visited there in 2014 for my own book on the Wild Atlantic Way and wrote about Dylan Thomas staying there in 1935. The book, The Road to Glen Lough, captures the spirit of the place with outstanding reproductive colour illustrations and astonishing research. The curious side is that there is no road to Glen Lough, nor even a path, and getting there involves a two-hour slog across moorland.”
“A Dreamer’s Search” has been selected to be a part of the 22nd annual Lake Placid Film Festival!
The film, about Kent’s time in Alaska, will make its New York Festival premiere at the historic Palace Theater in downtown Lake Placid on Friday, 10/27/23, at 4:00 PM and again on Saturday, 10/28/23, at 3:00 PM.
Writer, Director, and Producer, Eric Downs will be attending the festival in person and participating in Q & A sessions after each of the screenings. The screening at Lake Placid will mark the end of the film’s “festival run,” which included eleven festival sections, five awards, and over twenty-five screenings throughout the United States.
The four-day Lake Placid Film Festival (Oct. 26-29) applauds cutting-edge feature films, award-winning shorts, precedential independent television, engaging movies, and moving tributes. Adirondack Film, Director, Matt Fretz says, “The Lake Placid Film Festival has been a cinema haven for filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts for over two decades.”
Downs said, “We are grateful for all the support and honored to share Rockwell Kent’s story with a wider audience. It’s nice that the project could come full circle with the final festival screening in the Adirondacks, where Kent made his home. This event will end one chapter, and mark the beginning of the next. We plan to continue the journey, and I will share some exciting updates in the coming months.”
The full schedule and program is available on the Adirondack Film website:
https://www.adirondackfilm.org/lake-placid-festival/lake-placid-festival-2023
Individual tickets can be purchased online for the Friday and Saturday sessions of “A Dreamer’s Search” at the Palace Theatre, 2430 Main St, Lake Placid, NY (note, “The Cookbook” is another short film, showing as a double feature with “A Dreamer’s Search”):
https://www.adirondackfilm.org/films/a-dreamers-search-the-cookbook
UPDATE: For anyone in the North Country who is unable to make it to the film festival, “A Dreamer’s Search” is scheduled to be re-broadcast on Mountain Lake PBS on Thursday, 11/2/23 at 1 P.M.
Without Boundaries: Rockwell Kent Painting Plein-Air
Scott Ferris will be presenting a lecture about Kent’s Plein-Air painting, August 11, 12pm at the Center for the Arts, Crested Butte, Colorado.
The lecture will be available live, via online streaming. For more information contact Nel Burkett, Gallery Manager at Shaun Horne Gallery, shaunhornegallery@gmail.com.
Kent in the news on PBS!
Mountain Lake PBS, based in Update New York, has recently featured 3 stories featuring Rockwell Kent. Here are links to the 3 recent stories from the Mountain Lake Journal (July 7 2023)
SUNY Plattsburgh Curator Scott Ferris on Rockwell Kent Exhibit
SUNY Plattsburgh this summer is showcasing the evolution of Adirondack Painter Rockwell Kent’s works through the years.PBS talked with Curator and Rockwell Kent scholar Scott Ferris about the exhibit, Origins: The Evolution of an Artist and His Craft which runs through August 11th at the Rockwell Kent Gallery on campus. The Plattsburgh State Art Museum has teamed up with Ferris to present the exhibit that showcases how Kent’s ideas developed from sketches and drawings into finished compositions. Visitors will see paintings as well as many of his drawings, prints, photographs, and advertising Kent created. The exhibit draws on the huge collection of Kent’s works at SUNY Plattsburgh. The Rockwell Kent Collection at the college is one of the most extensive and comprehensive in the world.
Maine Exhibition Showcases Great Artists including Rockwell Kent
Rockwell Kent’s paintings were part of an exhibition on the campus of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine that showcased the extraordinary works of some of the great artists who have painted Maine over the past two centuries. The show included works from Winslow Homer, Andrew Wyeth, and Rockwell Kent. PBS Special Correspondent Doug Cook has the story from Maine.
ADK Experience Art Exhibition Opens
Adirondack Experience on Blue Mountain Lake has opened a new exhibition of its collection of artworks by painters and other artisans who were inspired by the Adirondacks. “Artists & Inspiration in the Wild” is a new permanent exhibit, which showcases a wide range of Adirondack art and is the most comprehensive showing of the museum’s art collections in its history. The collection includes works by well-known Adirondack painters Arthur-Fitzwilliam Tait, Harold Weston, Edna West Teall & Rockwell Kent
The Road to Glenlough book launches this weekend
Friend of the forum, Christy Gillespie’s long awaited book The Road to Glenlough is launched this weekend (7/8 July 2023). The first of the launches will be held in the Glencolmkille Folk Village at 7PM, Friday July 7th (west coast Ireland time!).
The book tells the story of Kent’s visit to the valley of Glenlough in Donegal, western Ireland, in the summer of 1926 and also tells the story of the valley, its inhabitants and visitors, who, as well as Kent, included Dylan Thomas and (local legend states) Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Christie’s cousin, Frank Galligan has written an article about the book and the upcoming launches in It Occurs to Me: The Road To Glenlough, featured in the current edition of Donegal Live.
Note, as with Frank’s earlier article about his cousin (which can be found on our Articles page), you may need to sign up for a free subscription to read the article.
For more information about this important book and how to buy it, please go to Christy’s website – www.theroadtoglenlough.com
Please check out the promotional video for the book below:
Update: The Road to Glenlough book launches held around Donegal have been very successful and the book is being well received. Here are some recent reviews:
Pamela Gertrude Manson
A Magnum Opus. Christy Gillespie had knocked it out of the park with this incredible publication. It is a remarkable work of forensic historical research and compiled with such scholarship, commitment and love for this beautiful part of Donegal. When someone sweats blood to bring a work of such magnitude to fruition they deserve every accolade. This book will, I’m quite sure be internationally recognised as a work of historical significance and an example of literary excellence. Thank you, Christy, for sticking with it. It was so worth the effort. Speaking personally, it educates, contextualises and inspires my work from here on. Thank you.
Frank Galligan
As I said before, it is a remarkable work of scholarship, and now that I’ve read it, I’m more convinced than ever that it will garner critical acclaim at home and abroad.
Christy has been Jesuitical in his research and fact-gathering and still manages to make it a fascinatingly enjoyable read, rather than an academic tome to be consigned to the dusty shells of university libraries. It is so readable for an academic treatise and notwithstanding the fact that Bonnie Prince Charlie, Rockwell Kent and Dylan Thomas are the three central characters, it is Glenlough that commands the centre ground and the narrative.
Noel Cunningham
Imagine the harsh landscape of a windswept valley … imagine being the only couple inhabiting this wild beautiful place … When we walk today in summer warmth from Glencolumbkille to Port and on to the deserted village of Glenlough we can easily forget the challenges people faced all those years ago in this inhospitable place. Imagine then the arrival of Rockwell Kent, the American artist and photographer … the rather convincing research that points to this same valley harbouring Bonnie Prince Charlie … and the presence of the great Poet Dylan Thomas … All of these accounts interwoven with the real story of the people who struggled to survive and flourish on the barren stony infertile land of this haunting place and you have the heart of this magnificent book by #ChristyGillespie. As for the pictorial record … words fail me! Our heritage and history … our people … our struggles … indeed the romance and magic, combine to make this book very extraordinary indeed … If those ruins could only speak!
Sean Grant
It was so interesting to read how Rockwell Kent finished ads for Rolls-Royce in that remote valley and him so far from the nearest road. And in keeping with the artist, this really is a Rolls-Royce of a book.
Seamus Browne
Congratulations to Christy. This was an extraordinary project for one individual to undertake. His research and attention to detail was second to none. One of the greatest books of our time.
As we have said above, more information about signings and how to buy the book can be found on Christy’s website – www.theroadtoglenlough.com
Kent works included in watercolor exhibition!
Watercolors Unboxed is showing at the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, from June 10 to September 10, 2023. The exhibition is an opportunity to reunite with iconic watercolorists like Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, and John Singer Sargent as well as a chance to discover lesser-known practitioners in the medium including Amedeo Modigliani, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Gustave Baumann. Because of their sensitivity to light, many of the featured artworks have not been on display at the Museum since the 1980s.
The image above is” Crab Fishing” by Winslow Homer.
“A Dreamer’s Search” has been licensed for broadcast by Mountain Lake PBS!
Filmmaker Eric Downs movie about Kent’s time on Fox Island, Alaska, “A Dreamer’s Search” has been licensed for broadcast by Mountain Lake PBS and will make its television premiere on Friday, June 30th, 2023, at 2:00 PM (EST).
In support of the upcoming broadcasts, Eric will appear in a Spotlight segment on the program Mountain Lake Journal. Spotlight producer Paul Larson interviews Eric about the origins and creation of his short film.
Below are all the broadcast times/dates for A Dreamer’s Search and the Spotlight segment:
8:00 PM, Friday, 6/23/23 – Spotlight – Mountain Lake Journal (Interview & Preview/Story)
12:30 AM Saturday, 6/24/23 – Spotlight – Mountain Lake Journal (Interview & Preview/Story)
7:00 PM, Saturday, 6/24/23 – Spotlight – Mountain Lake Journal (Interview & Preview/Story)
5:30 PM, Monday, 6/2623 – Spotlight – Mountain Lake Journal (Interview & Preview/Story)
2:00 PM, Friday, 6/30/23 – Broadcast Premiere, A Dreamer’s Search
6:30 PM, Saturday, 7/1/23 – Broadcast, A Dreamer’s Search
5:30 AM, Sunday, 7/2/23 – Broadcast, A Dreamer’s Search
10:30 AM, Sunday, 7/2/23 – Broadcast, A Dreamer’s Search
5:00 PM Monday, 7/3/23 – Broadcast, A Dreamer’s Search
The broadcast of the film is limited to the areas that are served by Mountain Lake PBS, which includes the Adirondacks, Champlain Valley, Montreal, and everywhere in between. The film will also be available on-demand to Mountain Lake PBS members through PBS Passport.
The Spotlight segment will be available to everyone after the broadcast premiere on Mountain Lake PBS’s website.
Mansion designed by Kent for sale!
From 1911 to 1913, Kent designed and helped build a mansion for two brothers in Winona MN. “Briarcombe Farm” is now for sale. More details are available in this article by Jay Boller on RacketMN. Thanks and an editorial nod to Eric Downs who brought the article to our attention.
Rockwell Kent featured in new exhibit!
The Great State of Illustration in Maine will be on view April 17 through July 16 at Ticonic Gallery, 93 Main St. in Waterville, Maine. This exhibit is presented by the Illustration Institute and features illustrations by artists who worked in Maine, including Kent. See their website for more details – illustrationinstitute.org
Nemec Print Collection Exhibit moves to Maryland!
Kent Collector Ralf Nemec has an exhibit of his prints collection at The Mitchell Art Museum, St John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. This show is an extension of the show that ran at the Fleming Museum, University of Vermont in 2022, and runs from April 9–June 5, 2023. Click here for more details
Creative Catalyst, Mini-Symposium at PSAM in April!
Plattsburgh State Art Museum in Plattsburgh, NY, will be presenting a Mini-Symposium about Kent’s Alaskan Adventures, April 6th and 7th, 2023. Below is the link to the Creative Catalyst website, which has the links to the online sessions, as well as information about registering for the in person sessions if you are in Plattsburgh on April 6th and 7th:
Creative Catalyst Mini-Symposium Link
Update: Eric Downs has been featured in an interview on Mountain Lake PBS. Click here to see the interview
Voyaging released in Spanish!
The long-awaited Spanish-Language version of Voyaging has been released. Currently, the book is only available in Chile. We will give further updates as we have them. The book is retailing for 29,000 Pesos (approximately USD29.00). We do not currently have information about shipping costs to the USA.
Here is the link to the publisher’s page for the book:
https://tienda.pehuen.cl/products/viajando-al-sur-desde-el-estrecho-de-magallanes
Cummer Museum has exhibition of Kent’s Shakespeare Illustrations!
From January 20, 2023 to May 7, 2023, the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Florida is showing “Rockwell Kent; The Shakespeare Portfoliios”. This exhibition features the illustrations that Kent provided for the Doubleday “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” volumes in 1935. The exhibition celebrates the legacies of two leading figures in their respective fields on the 400th anniversary of the publishing of Shakespeare’s first folio of plays. More details can be found on the museum’s website.
Kent Exhibition at Plattsburgh State Art Museum!
Kent forum contributor and friend, Scott Ferris, is curating a new exhibition at the Feinberg Library, Plattsburgh State Art Museum, from November 8, 2022 to August 11, 2023. The exhibition is titled “Origins, the Evolution of an Artist and his Craft. Selections from the Rockwell Kent Collection at Plattsburgh State Art Museum.”
The Rockwell Kent Collection at Plattsburgh State is one of the most comprehensive collections of the artist’s work in the world – paintings, drawings, prints, personal photographs, ephemera, books, films, and letters, all housed at Plattsburgh State Art Museum and the Benjamin F. Feinberg Library’s Special Collections.
From this exhaustive collection guest curator Scott Ferris has selected a variety of work, in a variety of media, to show how Kent and his craft matured. The audience will view artwork from Kent’s childhood years to his last endeavors; and witness how an idea developed from sketches to finished compositions, through procedures that, in today’s computer age, are no longer in use – color separations and hardcopy proofs. Visitors will observe paintings, – Kent’s first love – drawings, prints, fabrics, dinnerware, and books: with examples of what he considered his “potboiler” work – commercial commissions – that supported his global travels as well as his dairy farm – Asgaard.
Scott Ferris first came to the campus of Plattsburgh State as a sophomore in the autumn of 1976. Shortly after studying abroad – Italy and Denmark – the following two semesters, he returned to campus, fulfilling the request of the new museum director, Edward Brohel, to catalogue and label the budding Kent Collection. Subsequently, Ferris was hired by Kent’s widow, Sally, to serve as director of The Rockwell Kent Legacies (1980-1982). Here he labeled much of the artwork that would make its way to Plattsburgh following Sally Kent Gorton’s death (2000).
Since Ferris’s tenure at the Kent estate he has consulted on the artist’s work for auction houses, museums, galleries and private collectors. His catalogue of Kent’s 1960 gift of artwork to the (former) Soviet Union, – Rockwell Kent’s Forgotten Landscapes (Ferris and Pearce. 1998) – and his position as guest curator for the Adirondack Museum exhibition, (now ADK-X), The View from Asgaard: Rockwell Kent’s Adirondack Legacy (1999-2000) [the first time artwork from the 1960 gift returned to the United States] – has earned him international recognition as a leading authority on the artist’s artwork and life.
Ferris last curated an exhibition for Plattsburgh State Art Museum in 2002 – Generations: The Artistic Heritage of Rockwell Kent (the exhibition later traveled to the Frye Art Museum in Seattle).
Update: We have a recent news article about the Exhibition, featured in the Press-Republican, of Plattsburgh, NY. Read the article
Further Update: Scott was recently interviewed by Mountain Lake PBS (of upstate New York) about the exhibition. Watch the interview
And another article: Tim Rowland, of the Adirondack Explorer Magazine has also interviewed Scott about the exhibition. Read the article
Kent prints featured in Philadelphia Museum of Art Exhibition!
The current exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art – “Macho Men: Hypermasculinity in Dutch & American Prints”, features a number of Kent prints, including “Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty” (at the top of this article). The exhibition runs through April 1, 2023.
Click here to read a review of the exhibit, originally posted January 20th, 34thst.com, by Hannah Sung
Doug Capra to speak at Alaska Historical Society conference!
Our Alaska correspondent, Doug Capra, will speak at the Alaska Historical Society Zoom conference on October 8. Doug will talk about “The Turbulent Genesis of Rockwell Kent’s Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska.” Doug is part of the 9AM session, “Reflecting on Alaska through Canvas and Pen”. See more information about the Conference
To find out the story behind the gorgeous rainbow above (photo Courtesy Doug Capra), see our Facebook page
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UVM Kent’s Prints Show, featuring Ralf Nemec’s Collection!
Kent Collector Ralf Nemec is having a show at the Fleming Museum, University of Vermont from September 13 to December 9. For more details see: https://www.uvm.edu/fleming/rockwell-kent-prints-ralf-c-nemec-collection
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A Road to Peace and Freedom available at the Library of Congress!
An e-book version of “A Road to Peace and Freedom” about the International Workers Order (IWO) during the years 1930-1954. has been made available on the Library of Congress website. Rockwell Kent was president of the IWO for many years. The e-book is available for download free of charge at https://www.loc.gov/item/2019667851/
Latest news from Kent Cottage
A local contractor has recently repaired the shingled roof at Landfall – the cottage that Kent lived in during his time in Brigus, Newfoundland.
Read the story by Elizabeth Whitten posted July 4, 2022 in the “Saltwire” online magazine: “Keeping history alive at Kent Cottage”
Latest Update re PSAM Mini-Symposium
PSAM have shared with us the links for the youtube® videos of the Min-Symposium presentations:
“Pursuing Beauty in Bewilderment at Its Profusion: Reflections on Gender and Sexuality in Rockwell Kent’s Greenland Materials”
Susan Vanek and Jette Rygaard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
“New Light on the Friendship Between Rockwell Kent and Knud Rasmussen”
Erik Torm
Author of “When the Colour Ceases To Be Just a Color: Rockwell Kent’s Greenland Paintings”
Research Fellow, Uummannaq Polar Institute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Thanks to Tonya Cribb at PSAM for enabling us to share these.
UPDATE re Mini-Symposium:
This link: https://mountainlake.org/following-in-the-footsteps-of-rockwell-kent/ to the Mountain Lake PBS Station, includes more information about the Mini-Symposium, including video of the webinar Denis Defibaugh did at SUNY Plattsburgh on February 2, 2022.
Rockwell Kent Mini-Symposium at Plattsburgh State Art Museum!
The Plattsburgh State Art Museum and the Center for Interdisciplinary & Area Studies are delighted to invite you to join us for a series of events Celebrating the Spirit of Rockwell Kent, on Friday, March 4th and 5th.
The event will begin on the afternoon of Friday, March 4th and will convene with international scholars who will address aspects of Rockwell Kent’s Greenland Adventures. The celebration will conclude on March 5th with a tour of Rockwell Kent’s Farm in Au Sable Forks.
For those that are unable to travel, two of our speakers will be available via webinar LIVE. Please see below for details of these lectures.
For more information and the full schedule of the events, please download the PSAM Flyer
“Pursuing beauty in bewilderment at its profusion”: Reflections on Gender and Sexuality in Rockwell Kent’s Greenland Materials.
3pm-4:00pm Eastern Standard Time
Susan Vanek & Jette Rygaard
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6mQKkxdcTZaQue2qxlBsqw
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
“New light on the friendship between Rockwell Kent and Knud Rasmussen”
5pm-6pm Eastern Standard Time
Erik Torm
Author: “When the Colour Ceases to be Just a Colour| Rockwell Kent’s Greenland Paintings”
Research Fellow Uummannaq Polar Institute
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar
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Artist Lecture and Book Signing, Plattsburgh State Art Museum
Wednesday, February 2nd at 7pm
Yokum Hall Room 202
Photographer Denis Defibaugh presents his journey from Nuuk to the settlement of Illorsuit, 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, following Rockwell Kent’s earlier footsteps and offering a fresh look at timeless Greenland. Defibaugh’s revealing documentary photographs made during 2016-17 introduce a changing country and its cultural continuity in response to Kent’s 1930’s historic writings and hand-tinted lantern slide images made during his residence in Greenland.
For those unable to attend in person please register here for remote access:
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5VtbT7lWTHOyr9dF3SiqJw
Reception
Thursday, February 3rd
5-7pm
Myers Lobby Gallery
There is a companion exhibit to the lecture:
Rockwell Kent’s Greenland, February 1st to March 11. Slatkin Gallery, John Meyers Building, 2nd Floor.
For more information about any of the above, please see the website of the Plattsburgh State Art Museum – https://www.plattsburgh.edu/plattslife/arts/art-museum/index.html
Upcoming Zoom Lecture Featuring Kent’s End of the World Series!
In 1937 Life magazine asked Kent to illustrate an article on the end of the world as theorized by astronomers at the Hayden Planetarium. Kent let his imagination run wild and came up with four lithographs portraying possible cataclysmic endings: “Solar Flare-Up,” “Solar Fade-Out,” “Lunar Disintegration,” and “Degravitation.” The editions are unknown but were probably quite small. These prints are incredibly hard to find and getting a complete set can take some time, as we know from personal experience. We are excited to bring to your attention an opportunity to hear a lecture that uses these prints as a primary point of reference. Professor Justin Wolff from the University of Maine will be presenting a live illustrated Zoom lecture entitled ASHES TO DUST: AMERICAN ART IN THE DREADFUL THIRTIES. The lecture is sponsored by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and will be on Thursday, September 2, 2021, at 3 pm Pacific Time. The cost is $15. We are interested to hear what the professor has to say. More information is at this link: https://www.sbma.net/events/
Rockwell Kent and a century of landscape transformation in Yendegaia National Park!
Explorer and author Christian Donoso retraces Kent’s footsteps in Tierra del Fuego. Read the article here. Note, this article links to the online magazine Ladera Sur. The magazine, and this article, while fascinating are in Spanish. If , like your editors, you are not fluent in Spanish, your browser translater should be able to translate the article to your language of choice.
Sign up for the Rockwell Kent Review!
The 46th volume of the Rockwell Kent Review, the 2020-2021 edition, includes a form to subscribe to the magazine. Download a copy here
We are on Facebook!
The Rockwell Kent Forum now has its own group on Facebook. We have a steadily growing list of members, who can see our posts and contribute posts of their own. Go to The Rockwell Kent Forum | Facebook to join. The Lovers (shown above) is our cover image, just because it’s such a wonderful print.
NOTE, as this is a private group, you will need to be approved to join the group. If you are waiting on approval, please be patient, we will get to you.
Happy Birthday to us!
One year ago today, we started the Rockwell Kent Forum website, as a way to occupy our time during the Great Covid Lockdown. We hoped it would be a resource for writers, scholars and just people interested in Rockwell Kent. We thought maybe a few people other than ourselves would visit the site, but we just passed 1750 hits!
Thank you to all of our visitors and contributors for making The Rockwell Kent Forum a success.
New book about Greenland and Kent! North by Nuuk is an intimate, contemporary look at the people and the social and primal geographic landscapes of Greenland. Photographer Denis Defibaugh presents his journey from Nuuk to the settlement of Illorsuit, 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, following Rockwell Kent’s earlier footsteps and offering a fresh look at timeless Greenland. Click here to see the book’s website
Landfall Trust Newsletter! Our friends at the Landfall Trust have announced that they are again publishing a newsletter, after several years’ hiatus. The Trust owns and oversees the undeveloped 11-acre Landfall preserve, a provincial heritage site with its 200-year old Kent Cottage, in the coastal community of Brigus, Newfoundland and Labrador. Kent lived in the cottage during his turbulent time in Newfoundland in 1914 and 1915. The Trust provides seasonal artists, writers and musicians in-residence programs, conducts resident artist directed workshops and special events. To see more about Kent Cottage and Landfall Trust see their website . To subscribe to the newsletter, please email the trust at admin@landfalltrust.org
Kent Irish Painting Sold on Sight! Our Irish correspondent and friend of the RK Forum, Christy Gillespie, writes that Irish painting, “When the Sun Shines” was recently sold by Questroyal Fine Arts of New York. According to Christy, it depicts the view from the window of Kent’s house in Ireland, as Kent stated in a letter to his friend Carl Zigrosser. The painting shows the hay gathered into small stacks before they were all moved into a central position for the building of the larger stack, as shown in Kent’s masterful Dan Ward’s Stack, currently on display at the Hermitage.
The buyer was apparently so taken with the painting that they bought it at first sight. The painting sold for over $500,000.00 and is reported to be staying in the US.
Snow! It was a big week for Rockwell Kent, with his paintings of snow being discussed in glowing terms in not one, but two national publications. First up, in The New York Times Magazine, is a wonderful article by Amy Waldman entitled, “What It Means to Look at Paintings of Snow.” The powerful Kent painting, “The Trapper (1921),” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, is illustrated and discussed. Read the NY Times article here
Next, in National Review, Brian T. Allen previews the New York Winter Art Show. He discusses Kent’s luminous painting, “Fall Evening, Greenland,” from 1931-33. The painting is from Thomas Colville Fine Art (www.thomascolville.com), for sale for the first time in 40 years. Asking price is $685,000. Any time one has a chance to see a snow painting by Kent is a thrill. Read the National Review article here
Disclaimer: These links are external links and may be affected by article download limits. The Rockwell Kent Forum takes no responsibility for external link limitations.
Happy New Year from the Rockwell Kent Forum. To start the new year, here is a lovely Kent work on paper that was auctioned on New Year’s Day by Thomas Cornell Galleries in New York. It sold for $3,900 plus commission and costs. I am unsure whether it is a water-color or a gouache. The work is signed “Hogarth Jr.” That was the signature Kent used for illustration work, primarily in the 20s. The image is unknown to me, but it may have been a proposed illustration for a story or advertisement. If anyone has additional information on this piece, we would be happy to learn about it.
Merry Christmas to all our Readers! Without you, we wouldn’t be where we are today, with 1200 hits and counting! So, thank you, we present you with a special gift – A Rockwell Kent Christmas, featuring a selection of Kent’s many Christmas images. Please go to our Special Collections Page and enjoy with our thanks.
News Flash! 12/06/2020
Wake up America! sold at auction today for $300,000.00 plus commission and costs. Congratulations to the buyer of this fine piece.
‘NEW’ KENT CINDERELLA STAMP SURFACES!
In the 1940s Rockwell Kent was heavily involved in a fraternal labor organization called the International Workers Order (IWO). After World War II the IWO began a milk fund drive to help destitute and starving children in Europe, primarily Eastern Europe. Members could get stamps and stamp books from the IWO headquarters. The Rockwell Kent Forum has owned a copy of the stamp for several years, but was unsure it was by Kent. My friend Scott Ferris owns the illustrated Milk Fund brochure, which is from his collection and reproduced here with his kind permission. The brochure confirms that Kent designed the stamp. The editor would be interested in seeing the stamp book.
More information on Kent’s other Cinderella stamps can be found under the Special Collections tab at the Rockwell Kent Forum website.
WAKE UP AMERICA! AUCTION UPDATE
Freeman’s Auctions have published an updated article featuring an illustrated version of the essay by Scott Ferris. Click here to see the updated version.
MORE ABOUT THE WAKE UP AMERICA! AUCTION
Freeman’s Auctions will feature Kent’s important painting, Wake Up America! in their American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists Auction on December 6th. Click here to see more about the auction, featuring an essay by Kent expert, Scott Ferris. Your editors will be watching this auction closely!
NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS FEATURES KENT LITHOGRAPH!
The New York Review of Books features Kent’s “Beowulf” lithograph in a review of a new translation. Spoiler Alert: The reviewer is not always complimentary about the book! Read the review here
ANNIE MCGINLEY DOCUMENTARY!
“Annie McGinley” is one of Rockwell Kent’s most noted Ireland paintings. In 2018 BBC-Northern Ireland did a documentary about Kent in Ireland and this particular painting. TG4, the Irish language television network of the Republic of Ireland, is currently showing the documentary,”Ar Lorg Annie” It is in Irish with English subtitles, which can be found on the bottom of the player once the video starts. A good introduction to Kent, his time in Ireland, the country, the paintings, and the people. With a cameo by our friend Scott Ferris. It is only online for another three weeks. Far from definitive, but worth a watch: Click here to access the documentary
FREEMAN’S TO AUCTION “WAKE UP AMERICA”
On December 6th, Freeman’s Auction house will present the important Kent painting “Wake Up America”. The piece will be part of Freeman’s “American Art & Pennsylvania Impressionists” auction.
Download a PDF of the article about the painting
Read Freeman’s online magazine
SUBSCRIBE TO THE ROCKWELL KENT REVIEW
If you are interested in learning more about Rockwell Kent, subscribe to the Rockwell Kent Review. This is a publication of the Rockwell Kent Gallery at SUNY Plattsburgh. Click here to subscribe
ROCKWELL KENT TRAVELS TO FRANCE!
Rockwell Kent’s, “Cranberrying Monhegan”, which is in the permanent collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, will be traveling to France’s Giverny Museums of Impressionism.
The exhibit, “The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910, The Terra Collection in Context” will be on display from September 12, 2020 to January 3, 2021. Learn more abut the exhibit here
KENT ARTWORKS TO BE FEATURED IN CONCERT!
An upcoming concert event, Art of America and Rockwell Kent, is scheduled for March 28, 2021 at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow. The concert will feature music by the Moscow Philharmonic and images of Kent’s Artworks.
For more information see the website of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra – https://meloman.ru/
ROCKWELL KENT RETURNS TO IRELAND!
Last October a drawing of Irish haystacks that Kent made during his sojourn in Ireland in 1926 went on auction in Los Angeles. The editors attended the auction, were one of the bidders for the drawing, but lost out. It sold for $6,250.00
Our Irish correspondent, Christy Gillespie, has just told us the rest of the story:
The drawing of the “Haystack” we found out was coming up for auction and so a consortium was hastily convened and we managed to secure it despite stiff opposition. It now has pride of place in the new Rockwell Kent Tearooms [in Glencolmcille]. The first of Kent’s Irish works to come back home.
And here is an article about the opening:
https://europe.easybranches.
The Missing Irish Paintings. Author Christy Gillespie is working on a book about Ireland and Kent’s time there. He is looking for 9 paintings from the era, where they are located, and to get better images of them. Christy has written an exclusive article for the Rockwell Kent Forum to assist in the search.
More Alaskan news! Wilderness, Kent’s book about his adventures on Fox Island, has been published in China, with a forward by Doug Capra. Here is the link to the publisher’s website – sdxjpc.com
Update: The Chinese Version of Wilderness is now available on Amazon
Chilean photographer and explorer Cristian Donoso is retracing Kent’s steps in Patagonia to investigate the impact of climate change in the area. He is using Kent’s art to compare scenes in Patagonia then and now. Read about “Forgotten Footsteps”, his current expedition or follow Cristian on Instagram
Filmmaker Eric Downs is currently working on a short film about Rockwell Kent’s 1918 adventures in Alaska. The film is called “A Dreamer’s Search”. See the project’s Indiegogo page for more information
Rockwell Kent Forum is on Instagram! Follow us on Instagram @rkforum
Moby Dick Exhibition Coming to Syracuse
Syracuse University Art Museum will present an exhibition entitled The Howling Infinite: Moby Dick, Art and the Environment, August 12-November 28, 2021. Read the abstract for more information
New article uploaded
The Smithsonian article by the Kent scholar Scott Ferris is now uploaded. Please check it out in the Research Room
Everything Old is New Again
One of the difficulties in collecting Rockwell Kent is that his art is being continuously reused. For example, in December 1943 RK did the cover illustration for “Country Gentleman” magazine. The painting shows Kent’s farm “Asgaard” in upstate New York. It has recently come to your editor’s attention that “The Saturday Evening Post” used the same painting for the cover of their November/December 2018 issue.
Interesting drawing
American Scene Art – americansceneart.com, located in St. Louis, MO, has an unusual Kent drawing for sale. Described as “scratchboard” it depicts a young boy running with kite string. Unsigned, but there are two pieces of evidence about its bona fides. First, it has descended in the George Chappell family. Second, the mat has the inscription, “Return to Rockwell Kent. 23 West 12th Street.” I would be interested in hearing the thoughts of my Kent friends
Social Media Update
The Rockwell Kent Forum has been launched on Facebook. Please tell your friends!
Collection Sale
Long-time Kent collector Eliot Stanley is selling his collection. Interested parties should contact Eliot:
Email: jaes15@maine.rr.com
Phone: 207-773-2597
Information Needed
Arthur H. Groten, M.D., is seeking information about the 1939 Christmas Seal. See Mailbag for more information
Exhibition News
In January 2020 the Uummannaq Polar Institute opened their Kent exhibit: “When the Colour Ceases to Be Just a Colour – Rockwell Kent’s Greenland Paintings.” It looks like a fascinating exhibit. There is supposed to be a book coming out about Kent in Greenland. Will post more information as we receive it.
‘When the Colour Ceases to Be Just a Colour’ Exhibition: Rockwell Kent’s Greenland Paintings