Rockwell Kent

Noted painter and author Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown Heights, New York, on June 31, 1883. He was an architecture student at Columbia University in New York City but dropped out in his third year to pursue an art career. For ten years he held a variety of jobs--lobsterman and carpenter, among others--to support himself while trying to establish himself as an artist, but met with little or no success in that field.

In 1917 he traveled to Alaska to paint and make woodcuts, and the works he did there were finally published in 1920 in the book "Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska", and met with almost instant success. He published several more books containing his works over the years. He became known as one of America's most successful and influential artists and illustrators, and many of his works were purchased for permanent exhibition in major museums both in the US and abroad.

One of his more controversial works was done in 1938 when he painted a mural on the Post Office Building in Washington, DC, and in the mural he painted a message in an obscure Eskimo dialect. Many conservative religious and political organizations condemned him as a Communist, a leftist and a troublemaker for this "radical" message--even though most of them had no idea what it said, since few people in the US could read or write that dialect--and he had further run-ins with the more reactionary elements of US society over the years because of his art and politics.

He was investigated by the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for "subersive activities" throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and his being awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union in 1967 did nothing to calm the controversy. In addition to his paintings, he was also highly regarded as an illustrator, and illustrated editions of William Shakespeare's works, Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" and Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales", among others. He was also renowned for his work in lithographs and woodcuts.

Donated over 40 pieces of his work to public collections in the Soviet Union as retaliation against the State Department for revoking his passport due to his association with pro-Communist organizations. Kent regained his passport in 1958.