Noel Rockmore

Noel Rockmore (December 15, 1928 – February 19, 1995) was born Noel Montgomery Davis to his mother, Gladys Rockmore Davis, and his father, Floyd Davis, in New York City.

Rockmore was an American painter, draughtsman, and sculptor.

He claimed to have produced more than 15,000 works of art in his lifetime.

He is known for his portraits, his early rise to fame, his Preservation Hall portraits, and for changing his name at the height of the popularity he had developed in New York City and he had a daughter, Emilie Rhys

Noel painted in a realistic and old masters style throughout his childhood and adolescence.

Noel's younger sister, Deborah Davis, was born in 1930.

In 1935, while both he and his sister were struggling with polio, Noel turned to painting as an artistic outlet.

He attended Juilliard, where he learned to play violin.

In the early 1940s, while his parents covered World War II as art correspondents for Life magazine, Noel attended Putney School in Vermont, where he graduated in 1947.

He also attended the Art Student League of New York with Julian E. Levi.

His father, Floyd Davis was recognized in 1943 by Life Magazine as illustrator of the year.

In 1948, when Rockmore was 19, Joseph Hirshhorn became his first major patron.

He was encouraged by Henry Francis Taylor, director at the Metropolitan Museum and became acquaintanced with Raphael Soyer, John Koch, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.

His first studio was in the Cooper Union Complex in New York City, where he painted the street people of the Bowery.

He experimented with different artistic theories, techniques, and ideas in the New York art world of the 1950s.

As the abstract expressionist movement gained momentum, Rockmore left New York and went to New Orleans, where he changed his name from Noel Davis to Noel Rockmore, adopting the surname of his mother.

He spent the next 20 years commuting between New Orleans and New York City while various dealers tried unsuccessfully to manage him and his often volatile career.

Noel Davis grew up in New York City, the son of a painter, Gladys Rockmore Davis.

He painted animals from The Museum of Natural History and in 1950 he painted scenes from the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Coney Island, Fire Island, and Central Park.

Xavier Gonzalez, Jack Levine, and Fletcher Martin all encouraged Noel Davis to ignore the art fads of the time, including abstract expressionism, and persevere in his own unique direction.

On June 20, 1951, Noel Davis married Elizabeth Hunter in New York City.

On their honeymoon in Valles, Mexico, his car hit a cow and was demolished.

Upon the couple's return to New York, they settled into the typical life of a young married couple, in the "Des Artistes" building on the West Side.

He began showing his works at the Harry Salpeter Gallery.

He did two Life Magazine commissions and was invited to join the National Academy of Design.

He was in group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum, Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

He won the Hallgarten Prize, the Tiffany Fellowship (twice: 1956 & 1963), and The Wallace Truman Prize.

In 1958, Joseph Hirshhorn purchased an additional eight Noel Davis paintings, bringing his total to 16 for the Hirshhorn Museum.

He had a one-man show at the Salpeter Gallery in New York and the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio.

Later that year he moved to Brooklyn Heights as his marriage dissolved as well as his relationship with Harry Salpeter.

Upon leaving his wife and children, he moved to Coney Island, and then Xavier Gonzalez arranged for him to obtain a studio in the house of New Orleans painter Paul Ninas, where, according to Davis, he could "dwell in creative obscurity".

While in New Orleans, Noel Davis decided to legally change his name to Noel Rockmore, adopting his mother's maiden name.

This caused controversy, as it was unheard of for a major recognized artist to change his name at such a point in his career.

The exhibit will explore music in New Orleans as seen through the artistic eye of Mr. Rockmore in the 1960s and 1970s and Ms. Rhys in the past decade.

This exhibit pairs them together for the first time at the Museum which has an extensive collection of early jazz artifacts throughout the building.

Noel began taking violin lessons at the age of 5.

He also learned piano and guitar.

The Art of Noel Rockmore and Emilie Rhys had its grand opening on January 30, 2020, and will be on display through September 1.

The late Noel Rockmore and his daughter Emilie Rhys have used their unique vision not only to paint musicians but also to reveal their unique personalities and their ways of approaching and making music.