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04/19/2016 12:00 AMEven for those who don’t normally tune into politics, the conversation about the upcoming presidential nominating conventions has been hard to avoid. Trump!? Sanders!? Cruz!? Clinton!? Kasich?! There’s even a guy named Rocky who will be on the Presidential Preference Primary ballot in Connecticut on Tuesday, April 26.
Finding it hard to make a commitment? Don’t worry. There’s a category for “uncommitted” for both parties.
Regardless of how you vote, or whether you vote, the owner of the Six Summit Gallery in the Ivoryton village of Essex says it’s an ideal time to visit his current exhibit, entitled Nature, Politics and Humor, featuring the artwork of the late William Kent, a Yale grad and Durham resident who was virulently anti-establishment when it came to art, life, and even politics, mirroring the political mood of many on both sides of the current political debate.
Kent had a reputation as a rebel and recluse. A portion of his prodigious artistic output, much of it created while he lived in self-imposed isolation in Durham until his death in 2012, is on display in the Six Summit exhibit, which runs through Monday, May 9. There will be a special reception on Saturday, April 23 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the gallery, located at 6 Summit Street in Ivoryton.
“I timed it this way,” at the height of the presidential primary season in Connecticut, says Leo Feroleto, the owner of the gallery, adding that the exhibit “would appeal to someone who is interested in woodworking, to someone who is interested in politics, and to anyone who is interested in a high-pedigree artist who is in multiple permanent collections.”
By way of example, a big wooden hammer carved by Kent, placed at the front of the gallery where people can see it from the street, draws in craftsmen, architects, and blue collar workers “locals who have hammers in their hand in their everyday life. They love it on the surface, for what it is,” Feroleto says.
If someone takes a closer look, they will see that the hammer is coming down on the Star of Texas.
“So if you’re a history buff, or interested in politics, you might ask, ‘What does that mean?’ There was a lot of Texas in his work, and he was obsessed with [President] John Kennedy, and John, Jr.”
Solo Show a First for the Gallery
Feroleto, who has been running the gallery for six years, says he is so enamored of Kent’s work, and its continued relevance today, that he decided to launch this as a solo show, a first for this gallery.
“I thought his work deserved it,” Feroleto says. “He’s the only one featured. A solo show is something extraordinary, and his work is something extraordinary, both in content and volume. This is the kind of show that will appeal to both art enthusiasts and lay people.”
Feroleto says Kent, who was considered part of the avante-garde movement that placed a premium on experimental and innovative thoughts and works, was the first curator of the John Slade Ely House on Trumbull Street in New Haven, a not-for-profit art center that advanced the work of local artists.
“He also went to Yale and they pissed him off, for lack of a better term,” says Feroleto.
His anger, not just at Yale, but at the political process and art establishment in general, helped create both his aesthetic and the narrative that accompanies it, Feroleto says “Part of the appeal of his art is its intrinsic beauty, the other part of the appeal is that narrative.”
Some of the prints exhibited in the exhibit are explicitly political. One declares “Abolish HUAC,” referring to the House Un-American Activities Committee, created by the U.S. House of Representatives in the late 1930s to investigate people who were feared to have ties to the Communist Party or the Nazis. The HUAC investigative committee targeted theater professionals, disparaged the work of the ancient Greek playwright Euripides as promoting class warfare, and argued in favor of the internment of Japanese Americans.
Feroleto says the “Abolish HUAC” print is an example of how he was able to “get across his political message, but you can also say, ‘Wow, that can stand alone on its own as art.’”
Another print features the words, “Take it easy, but take it,” a sentiment immortalized by American singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie who wrote and performed songs informed by political dissent. Another work exhorts “End Your Silence.”
“I would say that both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are raging, mostly against the machine,” Feroleto says. “Their platform is that something’s wrong with the system, and I think Bill would be comfortable saying the same thing now. It is tapping into the same sentiment.”
Something for the Apolitical as Well
For those who are apolitical, there are prints that focus entirely on nature. And there is Kent’s technique to admire, Feroleto says. Many of the prints were carved on huge Italian slate blackboards, throwaways from a billiards factory, and re-produced on fabric and rice paper, doing away with the need for a printing press.
“He carved backwards of course, so some of the carved slates themselves are actually beautiful sculptures that stand on their own,” Feroleto says. “And they were experiments. After he punched out of the art world, he bought a farm in Durham, Connecticut and that’s where he spent 50 years as a recluse, disgusted with the art world, a bit of a loner, but obviously highly motivated, because he produced a mind-boggling amount of work. It looks like the work of 10 people, 10 really industrious people. And it has a quality to it, of not having machines. He didn’t want a machine, he didn’t invest in a machine, and that afforded him an opportunity to not deal with people.
“And this translated into quality,” Feroleto says. Kent created some sculptures from 1948 to about 1963, when he took a break and created his slate prints from about 1963 to about 1976, and then he refocused on his sculptures until his death in 2012.
“He sculpted up until the day he died,” Feroleto says.
Five of William Kent’s wooden sculptures and 32 of his prints are on display as part of the current exhibit at the Six Summit Gallery. There will be a special reception on Saturday, April 23 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the gallery and the exhibit runs through May 9. For more information, visit the gallery at 6 Summit Street, Ivoryton, visit www.sixsummitgallery.com, or call 860-581-8332.