ROCKWELL KENT

In 1937 the U. S. Treasury Department commissioned a pair of large murals to decorate the lobby or the Ariel Rios Federal Building in Washington DC. On the mural was depicted a U. S. Mail Service from Alaska to Puerto Rico. It showed four Puerto Rican women reading a letter in the Inuit dialect presumably delivered from Alaska. The authorities loved the mural until they discovered the translation of the Inuit letter. This was a direct reference to the Puerto Rican Nationalist Independence Movement. That year 18 Puerto Rican Nationalists were killed and over 100 wounded when police fired into a crowd of demonstrators on March 21. Kent, a famous artist, planted a newspaper story with the translation and soon media all over the company were drawing attention to the Puerto Rican movement, just as Kent had intended.

Kent’s left wing views were reasons that even his non-political works were not exhibited by many institutions and government exhibits. At the height of the Cold War, Kent had arranged an exhibit of his art to travel around the Soviet Union. However, the State Department, knowing his intention, refused to issue a passport for him to leave the country. However, they could not stop the art work from being sent or Kent from suing the Government. When the Supreme Court ruled that Kent or any other American Citizen was entitled to a passport, he traveled to Russia, caught up with his art work, and donated the exhibit, 80 paintings and many more graphics, to “The People of the Soviet Union.”

Kent came from a very affluent family,

Kent’s left wing views were reasons that even his non-political works were not exhibited by many institutions and government exhibits. At the height of the Cold War, Kent had arranged an exhibit of his art to travel around the Soviet Union. However, the State Department, knowing his intention, refused to issue a passport for him to leave the country. However, they could not stop the art work from being sent or Kent from suing the Government. When the Supreme Court ruled that Kent or any other American Citizen was entitled to a passport, he traveled to Russia, caught up with his art work, and donated the exhibit, 80 paintings and many more graphics, to “The People of the Soviet Union.”

In 1937 the U. S. Treasury Department commissioned a pair of large murals to decorate the lobby or the Ariel Rios Federal Building in Washington DC. On the mural was depicted a U. S. Mail Service from Alaska to Puerto Rico. It showed four Puerto Rican women reading a letter in the Inuit dialect presumably delivered from Alaska. The authorities loved the mural until they discovered the translation of the Inuit letter. This was a direct reference to the Puerto Rican Nationalist Independence Movement. That year 18 Puerto Rican Nationalists were killed and over 100 wounded when police fired into a crowd of demonstrators on March 21. Kent, a famous artist, planted a newspaper story with the translation and soon media all over the company were drawing attention to the Puerto Rican movement, just as Kent had intended.

Kent came from a very affluent family,