'Rockwell Kent: The Mythic And The Modern' At Portland Museum Of Art

Painter, graphic artist, writer, adventurous traveler and political activist, Rockwell Kent led a peripatetic, productive - and eventually controversial - life. His provocative views on political and social issues in the latter half of his career often got him into trouble and have tended to obscure his genuine artistic achievements. Today, he is increasingly recognized as one of the finest modernists of the Twentieth Century - a visual poet of the natural world.

At various times in his long life, Kent (1882-1971) was not only a prolific painter and illustrator, but an architectural draftsman, carpenter, fisherman, farmer, candidate for Congress and proponent of progressive causes. During his lifetime the diversity of his talents and later controversies generated by his political activism overshadowed appreciation for his art. In particular, Kent's outspoken admiration for the Soviet Union, expressed at the height of the Cold War, stirred hostility and damaged his reputation.

"Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern," guest curated by Kent scholar Jake Milgram Wien, on view at the Portland Museum of Art through October 16, is bound to enhance the artist's standing with Twenty-First Century Americans. Viewers can appreciate why Kent's explorations of elemental forces of nature - majestic mountains, awesome glaciers and roiling sea - and his illustrated memoirs of his travels resonated with Twentieth Century Americans.