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#949 Blain Kern Mardi Gras Warehouse - HISTORIC |
In the summer of 1982 Rockmore was given access to the Blain Kern Warehouse in Louisiana when it was just a warehouse and very few visitors got to go inside. It was hot and there was no AC but Rockmore could work fast and produce sketches in amazing detail in moments. This is one of his earliest sketches from that time period and the only one so far that has the words "Blain Kern Warehouse" and the date on the sketch.
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Gone with the Wind - Mardi Gras Backstage 83 |
There is a Mardi Gras Backstage sketchbook that has well over 100 images but that was sold with the copyrights (a rare occurrence for Rockmore) to a private collector in Dallas and none of those sketches have been seen by the public to date. Rockmore does use the pen smudge technique that he used throughout this Shirley Marvin sketchbook and it is quite possible he drew this sketch from memory and was experimenting. The Mardi Gras Backstage series would go on to be one of the most popular of his career and thus the HISTORIC significance of this work. There is a Roger Green Review of the show that would take place the following year in 1983 on the link.
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#1266 - Nude Figures with Ibis |
The Grid series originated on the football betting cards at Johnny White's bar where Rockmore was a regular patron. The complexity and details in these grid series is quite amazing to look at and analyze. You can really get an insight into the artist thought process and even though no two squares are continuous, they work together to form a complex understandable work. Rockmore would work on these on the football grids and sometimes he would create his own grids like this one.
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This work is Framed! |
This particular grid is interesting because it also contains one of Rockmore's favorite characters that he felt a kindred spirit with and that was the Ibis associated with the God Thoth. Rockmore must have felt this work was SPECIAL to resurrect it and watercolor it almost 18 months after her first created it.
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#615 Sister Gertrude Dreaming |
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70 Jazz Poster |
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This work is Framed! |
Rockmore discovered Sister Gertrude Morgan in 1970 through Larry Borenstein who promoted her and he became totally captivated with painting her in the same primitive folk style that she used in her art. He attended her "prayer room" in the 9th Ward with Larry Borenstein and insisted on capturing her, painting with her and talking with her. This particular work in 1970 speaks of her wagon dream where someone else was riding the wagon (possibly Rockmore) and the Lord told her to stop having meetings in the prayer room (could it be Rockmore bugged her to that point). Of course Rockmore had to capture this revelation and that is what this particular work is about. He was to go on and do the same concept several times but this is one of the few where he includes the wagon which looks very similar to the Jackson Square carriages.
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#290 Tanger Bay in the Kasbah |
Rockmore spent time in Morocco in 1966 on a trip that did produce this sketchbook owned by Shirley Marvin. What Rockmore did leave with this sketchbook was a permanent historical account of that time in Morocco captured by the master of watercolor.
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View of Tanger from Kasbah Roof |
He was fascinated by the architecture, the culture, the landscape, the animals and the people and he captured them all. In all his works from Tangier, Rockmore spells it Tanger and we are not quite certain why that is. Rockmore loved the colors, cityscapes, architecture, the people and geography as you can see in this UNIQUE watercolor where he combines them all. It is particularly interesting to note the shadows of the people that Rockmore allows to flow into the sea.
These three works below are in the upcoming eBay auction - click for descriptions!
 | | #719 Nun on Subway |
 | | #463 Blue Figure in Thought |
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#1010 - Nude from behind |
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