By Michaela Rife, Assistant Professor of Art History, Art and Design Department, SUNY Plattsburgh
Rockwell Kent is an artist familiar to SUNY Plattsburgh — his name adorns the Feinberg Library exterior, and the gallery inside is a testament to his local connections. Kent relocated to Asgaard Dairy Farm in Au Sable Forks in 1927, where he lived until his death in 1971, but he also moved through the prominent spaces of the early 20th-century American art world. During his life, Kent’s socialist politics sometimes made him unpopular, but he was always a prolific artist across mediums.
From sweeping Adirondack landscape paintings to textile designs and book illustrations, Kent’s diverse work is well represented in the Plattsburgh State Art Museum’s collection — in fact, it is the largest collection of Kent’s work in the United States.
The plate on display in Myers 232 comes from a collaboration he began with California-based Vernon Kilns pottery during the late 1930s. Pieces from this collection emphasize a national spirit in keeping with a country in the throes of the New Deal and on the eve of entering World War II.
SUNY Plattsburgh’s plate features a map of the continental United States in a gold wash outlined in a soft red. Within our borders, small illustrations represent regional industries such as oil in Texas, wheat in Kansas and mining in Appalachia. The oceans are rendered in thin black horizontal lines, but Kent also includes ships and marine life. His design is visually crowded, from the starry border around the rim to the American eagle set into a mountainous landscape that represents the unification of rural agriculture and urban industry (floating in the space where Canada would be). One of my favorite details is the airplane flying south above a green-outlined Mexico — this moment not only alludes to the historical context of a world obsessed with flight and on the cusp of commercial air travel, but to Kent himself as an avid traveler.
Kent’s “Our America” plate tells a story about how the United States saw, or wanted to see, itself in 1940. In doing so, it raises questions about national and regional identities, propaganda, industrial and agricultural histories, as well as material culture — what type of homes would purchase and display such an item, for example? Like so much of the museum’s collection, it is an object worthy of discussion in classes across campus.
This and other artworks relating to consumption and display are currently on exhibit in the Myers Building, room 232. If you are interested in learning more about the Plattsburgh State Art Museum collection, please contact Kara Jefts at kara.jefts@plattsburgh.edu for information on how to set up a visit, event, or class.
