Rockwell Kent, This is My Own - New York State Museum.
PSU Home > Museum Home > Rockwell Kent > This is My Own > About Kent



Rockwell Kent, Flame

Rockwell Kent was one of those who truly lived more lives than one. Into his long life he crammed more careers than any ordinary man would seriously contemplate. Painter, muralist, illustrator, printmaker, book designer, graphic artist, architect and builder, writer and editor, speaker and lecturer, navigator and restless traveler, political and social activist—he was all these and much more.

This is not to say he was merely a jack-of-all-trades. As a painter, he won critical acclaim and his canvases were acquired by important museums and discriminating collectors. He was the first artist to incorporate himself, paying his shareholders handsome dividends. From long sojourns in Alaska, Tierra del Fuego and Greenland, among others, he brought back powerful paintings and vivid accounts of his experiences. The romantic appeal of the paintings and the circumstances of their production in faraway places brought large crowds to see them. Perhaps no other American artist before him has so graphically expressed the sense of remoteness and awesome splendor of the Arctic.

– Fridolf Johnson
Rockwell Kent: An Anthology of His Work

Back Previous SectionAboutNext Section Next



Artist Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) once said that “art is no more than the shadow cast by a man’s own stature.” This exhibition of materials from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh chronicles the life of a great New Yorker and his work, which was born out of both remarkable personal experience and a deep sense of moral and political principle.

The Rockwell Kent Collection at Plattsburgh, established by a gift and bequest from Sally Kent Gorton between 1978 and 2000, continues to grow. It includes paintings, drawings, prints, books, bookplates, photographs, dinnerware, advertising art, and more, and is thus the most complete and balanced assemblage of Kent’s work in the United States.


Bookplate Drawing, click to begin
Tour the Exhibition

This exhibition was curated by Cecilia M. Esposito
Director, Plattsburgh State Art Museum

Biographical text by Frederick Lewis
Documentary Filmmaker
Associate Professor at Ohio University
About  Early Years  New Hampshire  Monhegan  Newfoundland  Alaska  Hogarth Jr.   Vermont   Tierra del Fuego   Ireland   Au Sable Farm
Book Illustrations   Bookplates   Greenland   Printmaking   Murals   Political Art   Commercial Work   Of Men and Mountains   The Kent Legacy
PSU Logo
Plattsburgh State University, Home Page

Copyright © 2009, The Plattsburgh State Art Museum.
All rights reserved. Copyright Statement
101 Broad Street, Plattsburgh, NY 12901
Phone: (518) 564-2474

Send comments to: Plattsburgh State Art Museum
Last Updated: 2/5/2009

Website by David Driver