An important Sociopolitical Canvas Executed at the Onset of WWII
Born in 1882 in Tarrytown, New York, Rockwell Kent immersed himself in multidisciplinary artistic pursuits from a young age—and soon came to understand art’s place in political struggle.
Conceived at the onset of World War II in 1941 as a rallying cry to urge the United States to partake in the global conflict, Kent’s canvas Wake Up, America! stands out as one of the artist’s boldest images. This visual plea against government neutrality still resonates in our contemporary sociopolitical climate.
An Early Activist
Kent involved himself in politics early on in life, joining the Socialist Party of America in 1904, and casting his vote for its perennial presidential candidate, Eugene V. Debs, in the same year. The roots of the artist’s democratic-socialist expression initially surfaced on the front pages of The New York Evening Call, where, in 1909, his drawings portrayed the challenges and espoused the rights of the laborer.
His work The Patriots Progress or The Long Road (1917) exposed his antiwar spirit, and his paintings—and wood engraving—of the severed heads of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1927) brought to light what many believed were the injustices within the American judicial system. From the 1930s onwards, Kent’s commentary on these issues took center stage—over and above, some might argue, his accomplishments as a fine artist and writer.
The Spirit of War
Wake Up, America! (also known as Wake Up!) belongs to a series of drawings, paintings, prints and posters that provide useful commentary on Kent’s contemporary topicality. It is one of a handful of large sociopolitical canvases that includes Heavy, Heavy Hangs Over Thy Head (Baltimore Museum of Art) and Bombs Away (Columbus Museum of Art)—as well as a statement on the artist’s return to the fight against fascism, after the world failed to address its rising viperous head during the Spanish Civil War (a position that required the artist to temporarily relinquish his antiwar stance in an effort to defeat the evils of fascism).
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The title of Kent’s was not new to American war propaganda art. One example is James Montgomery Flagg’s 1917 poster, Wake Up, America!: Civilization Calls Every Man Woman and Child!, which, compositionally, is significantly tamer when compared to Kent’s canvas; Flagg depicts America as a beautiful, reclined woman. Kent’s position can clearly be described as more radical.
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In a ravaged landscape, surrounded by flames, stands an Amazonian figure, representing the Spirit of War. Armed with a rifle, she is the center of the composition. She is shown ready for battle, and encourages a lethargic citizen—understood to be America itself—to join her on the battlefield.
In a 1994 letter to a one-time owner of the painting, Kent’s widow, Sally Kent Gorton, summarized Wake Up! best when she wrote:
“That the recumbent male is indifferent to what is going on in the world, specifically the ever growing menace of Hitlerism: the bombing of London; the invasion of Czechoslovakia; etc. etc. etc. Norway. The USSR. To these invasions the armed female is responding with the cry: WAKE UP AMERICA! And, as you know, the United States entered the war in 1941. Roosevelt having finally capitulated on his determination that we should not participate.”
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The artist’s development of the painting was complex. It emerged from numerous pencil sketches (some held in Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library), a small gouache, and a transparent watercolor study that finalized the layout of the composition.
The upper torso of the Spirit of War appears to have its formalist origins in the Kent-designed Hugo Lafayette Black medallion, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (1938). In content—and in some respects form—this figure closely relates to Kent’s Winged Victory and Our Seamen, Give 'Em A Hand poster studies, as well as his Forest Fires Aid the Enemy: Volunteer to Fight Them poster, and Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty lithograph.
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Kent’s Lasting Legacy
Wake Up! first appeared in the traveling exhibition Know and Defend America: Forty Paintings of Our Country and of the Outposts of Our Hemisphere. In the catalog that accompanied the exhibition, Kent wrote:
“This was painted six months ago. We've woken up now. We’ll stay awake; not only to complete the job that has been forced upon us, but to take up with renewed energy the cultivation of our own garden for the realization, at long last, of the Life, Liberty and Happiness for everyone that can give meaning to our faith in democracy.”
Both noted art critic and historian Royal Cortissoz and John O’Connor, Jr., then–assistant director of the Carnegie Institute, singled out the painting when they commented on the exhibition. O’Connor noted that “the latest painting in the exhibition is Wake Up! which... serve[s] as the theme of the show.” Cortissoz remarked:
“Landscapes predominate upon this occasion, but several figure pieces are on the walls. One of the best of the latter is Wake Up! ... in which the spirit of war, gun in hand, admonishes a lethargic citizen.”