ROCKWELL KENT (1882-1971) WHAT VERMONT MEANS TO N. Y. 1936. 211/2x13 inches. Amalgamated Union Label, Lip & B. A., New York. Condition B+: repaired tear in margins, some affecting text; restored losses in bottom margin. Matted and framed. One of America's great Art Deco illustrators, Kent was a talented artist, well trained as a wood engraver, lithographer and painter. Throughout his prodigious artistic career Rockwell created only a few posters, which were largely politically or socially motivated. The winter of 1935-36 saw bitter employment problems in Vermont as the marble workers went on strike. During the strike, the Procter Marble Company attempted to evict the workers and their families from company housing. "Kent volunteered to chair a citizen's board of inquiry into the conditions endured by the workers and their families during the strike. From this came the artwork for a poster [which was also used as a report cover]." (JDPA, Spring 1989, p.10). The striking image of a family cast out into the snow with all their possessions cannot help but be compared to Theofile-Alexandre Steinlen's Le Locataire and L'Aisne Devastee. JDPA, Spring 1989, fig. 6.
