Mail Service in the Arctic 1937

Rockwell Kent created this painting, Mail Service in the Arctic, and it feels like it was made with a limited palette of blues, browns, and whites. I can imagine Kent layering these colors to capture the stark yet beautiful Arctic landscape. I imagine him standing before the canvas, trying to figure out how to depict a sense of place and a moment in time. The people, the plane, the dogs, the sleds – they’re all part of the same world, connected somehow. The brushstrokes seem deliberate, carefully placed to create a sense of depth and texture. The painting is quite flat, though, in the way folk art often is. Kent might have been thinking about how technology was changing the world, even in the most remote places. How the mail service, via airplane, was connecting people in new ways. It’s like he’s saying, “Look at this moment, this intersection of old and new.” It reminds me of other artists who explored similar themes of modernity and change in their work. We are all in an ongoing conversation!