Noel Rockmore

Noel Rockmore (December 15, 1928 – February 19, 1995) was born Noel Montgomery Davis to his mother, Gladys Rockmore Davis, and his father, Floyd Davis, in New York City. Rockmore was an American painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. He claimed to have produced more than 15,000 works of art in his lifetime. He is known for his portraits, his early rise to fame, his Preservation Hall portraits, and for changing his name at the height of the popularity he had developed in New York City. He had a daughter, Emilie Rhys.

Noel painted in a realistic and old masters style throughout his childhood and adolescence. He experimented with different artistic theories, techniques, and ideas in the New York art world of the 1950s. His father, Floyd Davis was recognized in 1943 by Life Magazine as illustrator of the year. Noel's younger sister, Deborah Davis, was born in 1930.

The Art of Noel Rockmore and His daughter Emilie Rhys The Art of Noel Rockmore and Emilie Rhys had its grand opening on January 30, 2020, and was on display through September 1. The late Noel Rockmore and his daughter Emilie Rhys have used their unique vision not only to paint musicians but also to reveal their unique personalities and their ways of approaching and making music. The exhibit will explore music in New Orleans as seen through the artistic eye of Mr. Rockmore in the 1960s and 1970s and Ms. Rhys in the past decade. An exhibit pairs them together for the first time at the Museum which has an extensive collection of early jazz artifacts throughout the building.

1948-50: Career beginnings In 1948, when Rockmore was 19, Joseph Hirshhorn became his first major patron. He was encouraged by Henry Francis Taylor, director at the Metropolitan Museum and became acquaintanced with Raphael Soyer, John Koch, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. His first studio was in the Cooper Union Complex in New York City, where he painted the street people of the Bowery.

He painted animals from The Museum of Natural History and in 1950 he painted scenes from the Ringling Brothers Circus. Coney Island, Fire Island, and Central Park. Xavier Gonzalez, Jack Levine, and Fletcher Martin all encouraged Noel Davis to ignore the art fads of the time, including abstract expressionism, and persevere in his own unique direction. On their honeymoon in Valles, Mexico, his car hit a cow and was demolished. Upon the couple's return to New York, they settled into the typical life of a young married couple, in the "Des Artistes" building on the West Side.

He began showing his works at the Harry Salpeter Gallery. He did two Life Magazine commissions and was invited to join the National Academy of Design. He was in group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum, Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He won the Hallgarten Prize, the Tiffany Fellowship (twice: 1956 & 1963), and The Wallace Truman Prize.

In 1958, Joseph Hirshhorn purchased an additional eight Noel Davis paintings, bringing his total to 16 for the Hirshhorn Museum. He had a one-man show at the Salpeter Gallery in New York and the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio. Later that year he moved to Brooklyn Heights as his marriage dissolved as well as his relationship with Harry Salpeter. Upon leaving his wife and children, he moved to Coney Island, and then Xavier Gonzalez arranged for him to obtain a studio in the house of New Orleans painter Paul Ninas, where, according to Davis, he could "dwell in creative obscurity".

1959-60: Journey to New Orleans While in New Orleans, Noel Davis decided to legally change his name to Noel Rockmore, adopting his mother's maiden name. This caused controversy, as it was unheard of for a major recognized artist to change his name at such a point in his career. He was banned from the Hirshhorn Museum when he was caught there changing his name from Davis to Rockmore on one of his works. He was also accused of defacing a major work at a museum in New York (possibly a Jackson Pollock). Borenstein commissioned Rockmore to document all of these musicians as fast as he can. Rockmore responded with 300 oil portraits and over 500 small acrylics in less than two years.

Rockmore worked with a framer, Bruce Brice, whom he mentored and encouraged on his career path, and who eventually became a respected American folk artist. Rockmore, Borenstein and Bill Russell collaborate on a book, Preservation Hall Portraits, which featured Rockmore's works and was published in 1968.

In 1965, another relationship was formed with Jon and Gypsy Lou Webb, publishers of The Outsider, featuring Charles Bukowski. Their company, Lou-Jon Press published Crucifix in a Death Hand featuring Bukowski's poetry and Rockmore's art.

In 1963, Rockmore created a series of works based on his travels in Mexico, and in 1965, he did the same concerning his travels to Morocco. In 1964, he won a Ford Foundation Award that resulted in a show at the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he was artist-in-residence. Rockmore retreated to San Francisco to be with his sister Deborah, painting San Francisco and Haight-Ashbury as well as Eldridge Cleaver, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Allen Ginsberg.

The first two New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festivals in 1970 and 1971 were held in Louis Armstrong Park, then known as Beauregard Square, in the area of the park known to be the historic Congo Square and the adjoining New Orleans Municipal Auditorium. Artist Noel Rockmore and Bruce Brice did posters for the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festivals in 1970.

At that time, Rockmore began a relationship with folk artist Sister Gertrude Morgan and painted and worked with her throughout 1970. He embraced and painted many famous characters from the French quarter, including Mike Stark and his Free Head Clinic, Ruthie the Duck Girl, the jazz musicians Bill Russell and Gypsy Lou, and his new girlfriend Riva Segall. By late 1985 Noel was represented by the Posselt-Baker gallery of New Orleans.

In 1986–87, Rockmore was frustrated by his lack of recognition and funds. His drinking escalated and his relationship with women started to deteriorate. Nevertheless, his work output continued with the creation of several new series including the Caesarian series, French Quarter pastels, and a new Grid series inspired by football betting cards. He attended Alcoholics Anonymous and worked hard to reconcile his relationship with Mary May, but by the end of 1987 she had gone and Rockmore was once again alone and without a gallery.

1988-95: The final chapter In 1988, Rockmore signed a deal with Bryant Gallery in order to get a regular paycheck; while with Bryant, he was befriended by Dr. Hava, a psychiatrist and drinking buddy from Johnny White's, his favorite watering hole in the French Quarter. Dr. Hava put Rockmore on Zoloft in the hopes of allowing him to regain his focus and control his behavior. It seemed to work. Rockmore began to exercise, working out at the YMCA; his new-found motivation allowed him to move forward and produce an entirely new "Ancient Egyptian" series in 1990. In 1991, he had a well-received Egyptian show at Bryant Galleries.

In 1991 his longtime patron Shirley Marvin had the professional documentary Rockmore produced in New Orleans, featuring Rockmore and narrated by his daughter. In 1992 he began work on an "immigration series" featuring Ellis Island but was hospitalized that summer with an intestinal disorder. While hospitalized, he underwent detoxification from alcohol; he was able to remain sober for a month and half after being released. He completed the "immigration series" and had his final exhibition at Bryant Galleries at the age of 64.

In 1993 he began a dramatic series of huge works and collages to detail his march towards death. By late 1994 he was quite ill. He created his "final" self-portrait. He refused to go to the hospital despite attempts by his friends to intervene. He chose instead to go to the home of his friend Dr. Hava, whom he depicted as Dr. Jack Kevorkian in one of his final works.

On Friday February 17, 1995, the day Rockmore was to lose his life, an open house was scheduled at Dr. Hava's but did not occur. Rockmore was put in a cab, and the cabbie was told by the doctor that Rockmore was a street person to be dropped off at St. Jude Medical Center in Kenner, LA. According to the admitting nurse, as recorded in a letter to Rockmore's sister, as Rockmore was put on the gurney to be admitted to the hospital, he heard that he was thought to be a street person, and he raised himself up and said, "I am not a street person, I am a great artist." Noel Rockmore lost consciousness and died, two days later, on February 19, 1995, at the age of 66. His body was donated to medical science.

Posthumous recognition In 1998, a retrospective was held at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), sponsored by Shirley Marvin, Preservation Hall, and NOMA. The show "Noel Rockmore: Fantasies and Realities" was presented by curator Gail Fiegenbaum and included a brochure and panel discussion with George Wein, Shirley Marvin and Rita Posselt.

In November 2006, one year after Hurricane Katrina, Rich and Tee Marvin, Shirley's son and daughter-in-law, discovered over fourteen hundred (1,400) Rockmore works in Shirley Marvin's storage facility in New Orleans. They also found 35 years' worth of correspondence, every Rockmore brochure and news article, as well as a documentary film all related to the life of Noel Rockmore.