PORTLAND – Works by Rockwell Kent, a powerful painter whose adventurous life captured the American imagination between the two world wars, are on exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art.

“Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern” brings together more than 150 of the artist’s paintings, drawings and prints and explores Kent’s his role in developing a modern American art and his significance in our cultural heritage.

A distinguished group of Kent’s drawings for Moby Dick and Paul Bunyan are brought together for the first time in the exhibit on view through Oct. 16.

The show commemorates the 100th anniversary of Kent’s arrival in Maine in June 1905.

“Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern” features major loans from leading American and Russian institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of Art, The State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, and The State Hermitage Museum, among others.

Personifying the spirit of a restless era, Kent (1882-1971) frequently journeyed to remote corners of the Western Hemisphere, including Newfoundland, Alaska, Tierra del Fuego and Greenland to paint land and seascapes.

Kent first visited the island of Monhegan, off the coast of Maine, in 1905. He exhibited his first group of paintings from Maine in 1907 to critical acclaim in New York City.

“Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern” reunites a remarkable group of Kent’s Newfoundland paintings and drawings borrowed from American and Russian public collections, many not seen for generations.

Mythic American characters such as Captain Ahab and Paul Bunyan were also the subjects of Kent’s work.

Also featured are pen and ink drawings from the American Export Lines series, a lively group of Kent’s inventive jazz-age drawings and a group of his richly colored reverse paintings on glass from 1918.

The Portland Museum of Art is located at Seven Congress Square in downtown Portland. It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday. Memorial Day through Columbus Day, the museum is open Mondays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Museum admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and students with I.D., $2 for youth to 6 to 17, and children under 6 are free. The museum is free from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays.

For more information, call 775-6148. On the Web: www.portlandmuseum.org.