Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was a painter and illustrator whose style varied little over his long career. But it was a spare, modernist-leaning style in synch with the Art Deco and Moderne mood from the mid-1920s through the 1930s when his career was at its peak. Today, like so many other artists of his time, he is largely forgotten by the public at large. Biographical information is
here.
Perhaps due to architectural training or maybe inherently, Kent had a strong sense of design of the monumental sort. Even small illustrations such as bookplates (see below) have a lot of visual heft. This style also was in keeping with his politics, glorifying the proletariat and winning him the Lenin Peace Prize in 1967 as testimony for being "useful."
The present post deals with Kent's illustration; I might post about his painting another time.
Gallery
Bookplate for Katharine Brush - 1920
Revisitation - 1928
Ahab - from Moby-Dick - 1930
"Workers of the World Unite" - 1937
And Women Must Weep - 1937
Faller - 1942
From Decameron - 1949
Don, what is "Revisitation" from? Is it an illustration or is it a fine art print? Very powerful, thanks for sharing. Have you seen his print, "The End" of a man in a sinking lifeboat?
ReplyDeleteTime for me to go back and look at my copy of the Decameron. It has been too long since I enjoyed it.