During the 1930s and 1940s, Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was one of America’s most famous personalities.

Amon Carter Museum presents Rockwell Kent in two parts beginning Thursday, June 23 at 6 p.m. in the auditorium. The second part will air Thursday, June 30 at 6 p.m. Admission is free.

Over a period of more than 10 years, producer/writer Frederick Lewis, a professor in Ohio University’s School of Telecommunications, and Gregory Mansur, a professor in TCU’s College of Communication, Department of Radio, Television and Film, assembled a documentary that puts Kent’s myriad achievements in perspective. They retraced the peripatetic artist/adventurer’s many travels, shooting footage in Greenland, Newfoundland, Alaska, Ireland and Russia. Both filmmakers will be on hand after the presentation to answer questions.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was one of America’s most famous personalities. The foremost illustrator of his day, he created definitive drawings for literary classics such as Moby Dick, Candide and The Canterbury Tales. Known for creating art that reflected the harsh climates in which he lived, Kent was also a prolific oil painter whose work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

He was also a best-selling author and a political activist who championed many social causes. Although Kent insisted that he never belonged to the Communist party, his consistent support of radical causes—as well as the rise of abstract expressionism—contributed to a decline in his artistic popularity during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1957, the State Department revoked his passport. He sued the federal government for its reinstatement and won, resulting in a landmark passport case that allowed all United States citizens to travel, regardless of their political affiliations.

Two works by Kent are currently on view at the Carter in the permanent collection exhibition The Art of Twentieth-Century American Illustrators. The first is an illustration from Thornton Wilder’s Bridge of San Luis Rey; the other is Hero, a lithograph originally drawn for Kent’s own novel, N by E. His deliberate and controlled style was in the graphic tradition of British antecedents William Blake (1757–1827) and William Hogarth (1697–1764), and lent itself well to the visual commentaries he created for books.