An American Saga
Deedy, John
In Brief An American Saga: The Life and Times of Rockwell Kent, by David Traxel, Harper & Row, $15.95, 248pp. Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was one of the important artists of his times and a supreme...
...He was consumed with concern for humankind, but he could be unbelievably inconsiderate, even cruel to people close to him-wives and lovers, for instance, whom he would leave at the drop of an oar for a distant shore, or a more inviting bed...
...the passport case that went to the Supreme Court-yet gives few insights into this fascinating figure who was a counterpart Gauguin of sorts, though in geographical reverse...
...Traxel is admiring of Kent...
...He was also very much a paradox...
...David Traxel gets down all the facts on Kent-the Joe McCarthy confrontation...
...The best books on Kent thus remain his autobiographies, This Is My Own and It's Me O Lord...
...Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was one of the important artists of his times and a supreme controversialist...
...But he is protective, and therefore undiscovering...
...Kent was forever running off to some desolate corner of the world-Greenland, Alaska, Tierra del Fuego-to sketch, to paint, to commune with the nature of cold, unforgiving climes...
...He was preoccupied with the state of American art, but when it came time to dispose of the enormous body of his own work-more than 80 paintings and 800 drawings and prints-these he donated to the Russian people...
...He was an unblushing admirer of socialism and the Soviet Republic, but he was more than willing to play the capitalist game, on one occasion investing a $30,000 legacy and turning a handsome triple profit...
...He doesn't get inside the man...
...JOHN DEEDYEEDY...
Vol. 108 • April 1981 • No. 7
