Plattsburgh State Art Museum Collection Spotlight: Rockwell Kent's Our America

[Edith Ellis]

*Plattsburgh State Art Museum Collection Spotlight: Rockwell Kent’s Our
America *

Contribution by Dr. Michaela Rife, Assistant Professor of Art History, Art
& Design Department, SUNY Plattsburgh


[image: Kent plate spotlight.png]

*Image caption:* Rockwell Kent, *Our America *chop plate*, *1940,
earthenware, Plattsburgh State Art Museum Collection, P102005.13.1



Rockwell Kent is a familiar artist at 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 AuSable Forks in
1927, where he lived until his death in 1971, but he also moved through the
prominent spaces of the early twentieth-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 currently on display in the Myers Building room 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. PSAM’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 like 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 at plattsburgh.edu*
<kara.jefts at plattsburgh.edu>* for information on how to set up a visit,
event, or class.*
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