Rockwell Kent "Wilderness" Centennial Journal

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 SOME THOUGHTS:  Modernism, Free Love, and Gender November 24-27,   2019 ABOVE – Mabel Dodge. Photo Source. BELOW – Neith Boyce in 1900. Photo Source. SOME THOUGHTS Modernism, Free Love and Gender Sorry this post has taken so long, but it has taken me more time than expected to get through many sources – and still, this is only a gloss on a complicated topic. I’ve been trying to decide how much detail to go into as I work my way through Kent’s life up to his return to Alaska in 1935. Initially, I had planned a quick transition. There’s much to be told about his art and his rise to fame. I’ve found quite interesting Kathleen’s letters from France to Rockwell and Rockwell’s letters to both his wife and Frances Lee, the woman he will marry after his divorce becomes final in 1926. I don’t think these letters have been covered in detail by other writers and ...

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 Part 5 – Into the 1920s November 15-18, 2019 ABOVE – Rockwell Kent with an unknown woman, late 1930s. The inscription reads, "Do you really have etchings there?" This photo and the one below from the Rockwell Kent Gallery, Plattsburgh State University, Plattsburgh, NY. BELOW – Rockwell Kent, second from right, 1915-1920. I’ll tell you that in order to produce good fruit, you need to espalier yourself. You’ll stay that way all your days, your arms stretched out, your mouth open to absorb what’s passing by, what’s around you, in order to draw life from it.          Edgar Degas (1834-1917) in a Nov. 27, 1872 letter The painter may not be a casual tourist letting his work be just a record of astonishment at novelty. Taking the term impressionism literally, we want much deeper insight than the term implies. To call scenes, cult...