man & nature # 39 ~ Aasgard
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 10:01AM 
Aasgard Farm, Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggenHere in the Adirondacks, there are precious few High Peaks grand panoramic vantage points that are accessible to the casual observer who doesn't want to scale a peak, even just a small one. One of the most picturesque "roadside" views is found right here in my village of Au Sable Forks and, even though it is just 1/2 mile or so from the main thoroughfare, it remains a rather "hidden" place.
This is even more remarkable by the fact that this view of the High Peaks is fronted by Aasgard (Garden of the Gods ~ from Norse mythology) Farm, the longtime home and studio of the famed American artist, author, and political activist Rockwell Kent. Kent lived here from 1927 until his death in 1971.
Kent was an interesting person. He was very successful as both the field of Fine Art and that of commercial art. His book illustration credits were numerous, he has public and private murals in Albany, NY and NYC as well as in Washington, DC (FDR was very kind to Kent). His advertising illustrations were created for the tone-ist of clients - the likes of Cadillac, the stores of Park Ave and 5th Ave, the fashion industry, and so on.
Kent was able to use the financial benefits of his commercial art to finance the life of what could be called that of a gentleman farmer - a dairy farmer to be exact. I don't know how much actual farm work he did - he hired farm workers, and his son, after getting a degree from Harvard, returned to Au Sable Forks to manage the farm. It was a job he must have been spectacularly unsuited for since Kent was forced to fire him. Whereupon, his son stole all his cows - Kent didn't notice they were gone for at least a couple days - and gave them to a local real estate agent as down payment / collateral on a farm of his own.
When Kent eventually discovered the theft, he confronted the real estate agent (whose family descendants still carry on to this day in the real estate biz) and demanded his cows back. The agent refused. Kent waited a few days for a moment when the agent was out working in his own fields, loaded up some friends into the back of his pickup and confronted the agent again. The agent refused again and Kent engaged him in some fisticuffs, the result of which was that he got his cows back.
Kent was also a political activist and he put his art to work for that cause. He became very popular in the Soviet Union, and in 1957, half a million Russians attended an exhibition of his work. Subsequently, he donated eighty paintings and eight hundred prints and drawings to the Russian people. In 1967, he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize - Kent donated the prize money to the women and children of Vietnam, both North and South.
Because of his many pieces of art that supported social causes and ideas, he was considered by most to be a Communist sympathizer, even to the point where the State Department revoked his passport during that wonderful American era of the "Great Red Menace" scare. Kent, not to be cowed and undoubtedly fueled by his commercial financial gains, sued for its reinstatement and emerged victorious in a landmark Supreme Court case.
All of this might have made Kent little more than a "character" in the eyes of the "true" locals, but Kent really pushed the envelope when he started to distribute his bottled milk with the red socialist star on the bottom side of cardboard lid. As far as the locals were concerned, he wasn't a Communist sympathizer, he was a full-fledged effete, un-American, commie-pinko bastard, period, end of discussion.
The net result of this was that, to this day in Au Sable Forks, it's, "Who? Rockwell, who?" There is not a single mention or indication that one of the most renowned American artists of the last century ever existed, much less lived here and created most of his art here. None. Nada. Zip.
Reader Comments (4)
Great story. Love this man :)
The sad thing is, that the downfall of the Soviet Union also meant the total victory of orthodox capitalism. The effect is, that today you can't even talk about alternative societes and alternative ideals. You are simply ridiculed, and the problem is, that this is never ever questioned by the greater public.
But really: What does the collapse of a perverted, totalitarian system prove? Certainly not that unrestricted capitalism is right! Unfortunately that is exactly how it is read though.
Kent was a master, but suffered the 'stain' of communism. i think it was the christian right which managed to convince (even present day) americans that communism is the great evil of the world. stalin, was. but marx, don't think so. meanwhile the same americans don't have any problem buying cheap goods from the walmart-communist china alliance.
I have been to Russia just after the fall of the Soviet Union. I don't think you would love communism or socialism so well if you had to live it. More than likely we wouldn't be taking all these wonderful photos. No camera, no store to buy it. Even if, it would be be made by your fellow comrade, very crappy. Don't be so quick to throw away our capitalist system, we may live to regret it.
And by the way, lets get rid of those stinking Christians too just like the Soviet Union.